639 nails mostly over 2 inches extracted from a patient's intestine in Kolkata

Kolkata : Doctors in Kolkata have extracted 639 nails from the intestine of man with learning disability. The surgery was conducted at the Calcutta Medical College & Hospital.

The patient has been identified as a 48-year-old man from Gobargdanga; according to the surgeon doctor, he is a  schizophrenic and used to gulp nails regularly.

Recently, complained of stomachache and also started vomiting regularly. He was brought to a hospital couple of weeks back for the checkup. Post endoscopy nails were spotted and doctors suggested a surgery to remove them from the body.

Siddhartha Biswas, associate professor of surgery conducted the surgery and was shocked to see how a man can gulp down so many nails.

Most of the 639 extracted nails are bigger than 2 inches and are quite sharp; but luckily there was no severe damage and the nails were removed safely from his body.

"The nails are mostly bigger than 2 inches and are qui te sharp. But luckily , there was no major perforation in the GI tract," Dr Biswas said. 

The patient, who was admitted to the hospital on Friday is stable and under observation.