The doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) removed a 20-cm long kitchen knife from the abdomen of a 28-year-old man.
On July 12, the patient, who hails from Haryana, was referred by the Centre-run Safdarjung Hospital to the apex medical institution for advanced surgery.
According to (Prof) Dr N R Das from the Department of Gastroenterology at AIIMS, the patient came to the AIIMS emergency. First, doctors conducted his COVID-19 test which was done to rule out the coronavirus infection, the reports came out to negative.
He had a medical history of drug dependency. As he could not get marijuana (commonly called cannabis -an addictive drug), he swallowed a knife, said a doctor.
Doctors said that patient had swallowed the knife around one-and-a-half months ago when he failed to get marijuana. "He was living a normal life after swallowing the knife. His family was unaware of this incident. About one-and-a-half months later, he started getting pain in his stomach and family took him to a doctor for a check-up. The entire family got shocked when they saw his x-ray report showing a 20-cm-long knife inside his body," said doctors.
The surgery was done on July 19.
"The surgery was very challenging. The patient's X-ray report showed that the knife was placed near the liver. It took us nearly three hours to us to operate upon him and take the knife out from his abdomen," said Dr Das.
"It was a complex surgery because the knife was placed close to the bile duct and blood vessels. A minor mistake could even put his life at a major risk. So we planned everything. First, a radiologist removed pus from the patient's lungs and liver to stop the infection from spreading further and after counselling by the psychiatrists, he was given supplements to get the strength to undergo this complex surgery," Dr Das told adding that under radioscopy guidance, the knife was taken out.
Doctors have created a food pipe for him during the surgery in his abdomen and through that tube, he was being given food. He is being given psychiatric treatment also.
After the surgery, the patient was under observation and shifted to the ward and was in a stable condition, said Dr Das.
So far medical literature has reported only two to three cases of patients swallowing foreign objects, including a needle, a pin, and a coin.
( With inputs from ANI )