X-ray which reveals a large lump in woman stomach

Woman suffered from rare disorder ‘Acuphagia’

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AHMEDABAD: An inch-long iron nails, nuts and bolts, safety pins, U-pin, hair pin, bracelets, chains, mangalsutra, copper ring, bangles... This is no list of goods in a hardware store or jewellery shop; it was the content found in a woman's tummy upon getting operated recently in Civil Hospital.Sangita, in her mid-40s, was admitted to Civil Hospital from Government Hospital for Mental Health here on October 31, after she complained of severe stomach ache.A native of Shirdi in Maharashtra, the mentally-ill woman was found wandering on the streets of Shaherkotda area after which she was handed over to the mental health hospital by a court order."The woman's stomach had become rock-hard. The X-ray revealed a large lump in her stomach while safety pins were protruding from her lung. One pin had even punctured her stomach wall prompting us to immediately operate upon her," said Dr Nitin Parmar, senior surgeon at Civil Hospital's general surgery department.The operation, which lasted over two-and-a-half hours, revealed one surprise after another.Doctors found sharp metal objects , jewellery and other knickknacks like rope and zipper, all weighing about 1.5 kg. The operation was followed by an X-ray to ascertain nothing was left in the stomach.“Acuphagia, is a rare disorder, where person eats sharp objects and other indigestible objects. It is generally seen in mentally ill persons. We hardly one such case annually. The woman may have been popping such stuff for many months now,” said Dr Parmar who performed the surgery with Dr Gajendra, Dr Lomesh and Dr Shashank.Arpan Nayak , a psychiatric social worker at the Government Hospital for Mental Health, said that Sangita is under observation after the discharge. “We could locate her brother at Shirdi, but the family is reluctant to take her back as she has fled home thrice. We, however, are hopeful that she finds her family,” he said.