Hundreds of coins found in patient's belly

Associated Press ^ | February 18, 2004 | Associated Press Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

Hundreds of coins found in patient's belly

07:26 PM CST on Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Associated Press

BOSTON – 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.

Five days after his arrival, doctors cut him open and removed his badly damaged stomach with its contents. He died 12 days later from complications.

One of his doctors, intensive care specialist Dr. Bruno Francois, said the patient had swallowed the coins – both French currency and later euros – over about a decade. His family tried to keep coins and jewelry away from him.

"When he was invited and came in some homes, he liked to steal coins and eat them," Francois said.

The case history of the French patient, whose name was withheld, was reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

The patient's rare condition is called pica, a compulsion to eat things not normally consumed as food. Its name comes from the Latin word for magpie, a bird thought to eat just about anything.

Pica can take the form of eating dirt, ashes, chalk, hair, soap, toothbrushes, burned matches and many other things. Francois once treated a patient who ate forks. Most such objects are small enough to pass on their own, but some must be removed by doctors.

The condition is perhaps best known in children and pregnant women but is also sometimes linked to psychiatric illness.

A few details of the Frenchman's case were presented Jan. 1 along with the X-ray – but no explanation of the stomach mass – as a challenge to New England Journal of Medicine readers in a fixture called "A Medical Mystery."

Dr. Lindsey Baden, an editor at the journal, reported that 666 readers in 73 countries – mostly doctors or doctors-in-training – contacted the journal to try to solve the mystery. Almost 90 percent settled on diagnoses consistent with pica, but only 8 percent correctly identified coins.

"This case serves as a reminder of important factors that should be considered in the care of patients who are mentally impaired," Baden wrote.

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/021804dnnatcoineater.a89c8.html

[MeekOneGOP]

Well, he did die, but it was 12 days after the surgery to remove the coins.

The old copper US penny was 92% copper and fairly safe if swollowed,
but the new penny is 98% zinc and could poison you if swollowed.

I didn't know they had changed the U.S. penny. What year, do you know ?

[Bluntpoint]

My dream is to eat nickles and crap quarters.

[MeekOneGOP]

LOL !

[MeekOneGOP]

It's Bush's fault !

[Thinkin' Gal]

In a previous life he was a "broken" vending machine.

[ovrtaxt]

A friend of mine is an emergency room surgeon. Every time I see him, he has a new story for me, particularly surrounding the constant stream of people who have to have objects removed from various orifices.

The last one was a guy who came in with abdominal pain. Turns out he was swallowing Barbie heads. No lie.

He said they felt good when he passed them, "y'know, with the hair and all."

I am not making this up.

[Lazamataz]

Well, he's dead now, right?

String him up on a tree and use him for a pinata!!!!

[Lazamataz]

The old copper US penny was 92% copper and fairly safe if swollowed, but the new penny is 98% zinc and could poison you if swollowed.

True. But if you save those pennies, you can buy a dictionary and look up the spelling of the word "SWALLOWED". ;^)

[Lazamataz]

A few tablespoons of castor oil will take care of that.

That's evil.

But not as evil as my pinata comment. >:^)

[wolficatZ]

"If he swolled a bunch of Euro coins then he is lucky to be alive"

He must have since he's dead.

LOL.

[BlueLancer]

No deposit, no return?

Penalty for early withdrawal?

[Happy2BMe]

"His family tried to keep coins and jewelry away from him."

Does this mean I need to get checked?

[MeekOneGOP]

I can believe it. I have heard of a few weird cases too.

[MeekOneGOP]

haha !

[reagan_fanatic]

I'm sure pre-op went something like this:

"How's the patient's condition, Doctor?"

Doctor: "No change yet.."

[Jim Cane]

This guy lost a few too many games of "Quarters". I guess
nobody told him that your supposed to drink just the beer.

[general_re]

Every time I see him, he has a new story for me, particularly surrounding the constant stream of people who have to have objects removed from various orifices.

Objects found in various orifices.

Well, one particular orifice, anyway.

[Chewbacca]

Yeah. It was 1982.

[Petronski]

From your link:

The medical journals list, among other things, the following astonishing array:

A bottle of Mrs. Butterworth's syrup, an ax handle, a nine-inch zucchini, countless dildoes and vibrators including one 14-inch model complete with two D-cell batteries, a plastic spatula, a 9-1/2-inch water bottle, a deodorant bottle, a Coke bottle, a large bottle cap, numerous other bottles, a 3-1/2-inch Japanese glass float ball, an 11-inch carrot, an antenna rod, a 150-watt light bulb, a 100-watt frosted bulb, a cucumber, a screwdriver, four rubber balls, 72-1/2 jeweler's saws (all from one patient, but not all at the same time, although 29 were discovered on one occasion), a paperweight, an apple, an onion, a plastic toothbrush package, two bananas, a frozen pig's tail (it got stuck when it thawed), a ten-inch length of broomstick, an 18-inch umbrella handle and central rod, a plantain encased in a condom, two Vaseline jars, a whiskey bottle with a cord attached, a teacup, an oil can, a six-by-five-inch tool box weighing 22 ounces, a six-inch stone weighing two pounds (in the latter two cases the patients died due to intestinal obstruction), a baby powder can, a test tube, a ball-point pen, a peanut butter jar, candles, baseballs, a sand-filled bicycle inner tube, sewing needles, a flashlight, a half-filled tobacco pouch, a turnip, a pair of eyeglasses, a hard-boiled egg, a carborundum grindstone (with handle), a suitcase key, a syringe, a file, tumblers and glasses, a polyethylene waste trap from the U-bend of a sink, and much, much more.

In 1955 one man who was "feeling depressed" reportedly inserted a six-inch paper tube into his rectum, dropped in a lighted firecracker, and blew a hole in his anterior rectal wall. This changed his mood real quick.

[Petronski]

It's a good thing that plantain was encased in a condom. LOL