Specialist surgeons flew from Hanoi to assist at the operation in Thai Nguyen Province in the north of the country. The 54-year-old patient visited the hospital after being involved in a road accident last month, and an ultrasound test seemed to show a sharp instrument lying to the left of his stomach. A second check in a hospital in his nearby home province of Bac Kan removed any doubt - there was a 15cm (6-inch) pair of surgical scissors nestling next to his colon, Tuoi Tre newspaper reports.