Red
02-19-2004, 09:39 AM
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- French doctors were taken aback when they discovered the reason for a patient's sore, swollen belly: He had swallowed around 350 coins -- $650 worth -- along with assorted necklaces and needles.
The 62-year-old man came to the emergency room of Cholet General Hospital in western France in 2002. He had a history of major psychiatric illness, was suffering from stomach pain, and could not eat or move his bowels.
His family warned doctors that he sometimes swallowed coins, and a few had been removed from his stomach in past hospital visits.
Still, doctors were awed when they took an X-ray. They discovered an enormous opaque mass in his stomach that turned out to weigh 12 pounds -- as much as some bowling balls. It was so heavy it had forced his stomach down between his hips.
full story (http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/02/18/coin.eater.ap/index.html)
:eek: holy crap.
The 62-year-old man came to the emergency room of Cholet General Hospital in western France in 2002. He had a history of major psychiatric illness, was suffering from stomach pain, and could not eat or move his bowels.
His family warned doctors that he sometimes swallowed coins, and a few had been removed from his stomach in past hospital visits.
Still, doctors were awed when they took an X-ray. They discovered an enormous opaque mass in his stomach that turned out to weigh 12 pounds -- as much as some bowling balls. It was so heavy it had forced his stomach down between his hips.
full story (http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/02/18/coin.eater.ap/index.html)
:eek: holy crap.