WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
A mom in India noticed ornaments started disappearing from their home in Margram village. She didn’t know how the objects just disappeared out of nowhere. Finally, one day, the thief was identified after her daughter was rushed to hospital due to abdominal pain and nausea.
The daughter, Runi Khatun, 26, was so weak and emaciated that she began vomiting after every meal. It was so serious that on July 16, 2019, she was admitted to Rampurhat Government Medical College and Hospital in West Bengal state.
Doctors conducted scans on her belly and realized there was some metal hiding inside. After a week’s time when Khatun’s condition was gradually stabilized, surgeons operated on her stomach.
“Her albumin and hemoglobin count were so low that we could not perform an operation soon,” explained Dr. Biswas.
The surgeons opened her up. They were left baffled by what they found inside her belly.
To anyone’s horror, from her stomach, surgeons removed a whopping 3.5 pounds (approx 1.6 kg) and 53,000 pounds’ worth (approx. US$66,000) of ornaments. There were 69 chains, 80 earrings, 90 coins in the denomination of Rs 5 and Rs 10, 11 nose rings, 8 lockets, 2 silver coins, 5 anklets, 4 keys, and a watch dial.
The huge pile of objects was mostly made of copper and brass, but some of the items were gold. Khatun had swallowed the coins from her brother’s costume jewelry shop while she was alone, her family members said.
Khatun’s mother had not the slightest idea that her daughter was swallowing the ornaments that she noticed had gone missing. The mom said whenever she questioned Khatun about the missing items, she cried.
The surgeons took out the endless chunk of jewelry, metals, and coins from her stomach during the operation that lasted for almost 1 hour 15 minutes.
Thankfully, Khatun was in a stable condition following the operation.
One of the doctors in the operating team said: “She swallowed jewelry and coin whenever she felt hungry.”
It’s likely Khatun suffers from pica, an eating disorder that involves eating of inedible materials and substances, such as stones, dirt, paint, plastic, paper, or wood, that have no nutritional value persistently.
Doctors have planned to have Khatun, who is mentally unstable, receive psychiatric treatment. “She will be under psychiatric treatment,” Sharmila Moulik, the deputy superintendent of the hospital, said.
This was not the first medical case in India in which patients were found swallowing solid objects.
In another case, doctors at MPN Khare Surgical and Maternity Nursing Home in Madhya Pradesh state’s Chhattarpur District extracted 33 objects, comprising razor blades, screwdrivers, and plastic items, from 30-year-old Yogesh Thakur’s stomach.
Doctors treating Thakur said he likely suffers from altered mental status (AMS) and acuphagia. Acuphagia, categorized as a type of pica, is a rare disorder whereby a person has an appetite for sharp metal objects.
If you experience pica syndrome, it’s advisable to consult a psychiatrist or mental healthcare professional for treatment.
