Egypt: Forks, spoons and toothbrushes found in man’s stomach
Mentally-ill man had swallowed the items months ago
Cairo: Egyptian surgeons in a province north of Cairo said they had removed tableware, jewellery and toothbrushes from the stomach of a mentally ill man in a rare medical case.
His mother was baffled by the disappearance of forks, spoons and some jewels from home in recent months.
But it did not occur to her that her son might have swallowed them.
The man, in his twenties, was brought to a government-run hospital in the province of Mansura, about 110 kilometres north of Cairo, after experiencing severe pain in his stomach, a surgeon said.
“When his health deteriorated and he suffered from constant vomiting and severe pains in the stomach, his mother brought him to the hospital where checks showed the presence of strange objects inside his stomach,” said Dr Amjad Fouad, the chief surgeon at the Mansura University’s Digestive System Centre.
The patient, who suffers from brain atrophy, underwent an operation during which forks, spoons, a gold ring, a necklace, and seven toothbrushes were removed from his stomach, Dr Fouad told satellite Egyptian TV MBC Masr.
The patient is now reported to be in stable condition.
“We rarely encounter such bizarre cases in medicine,” Dr Fouad said.