A 42-year-old man who allegedly had an overwhelming urge to consume metal is reportedly recovering after surgeons in India removed 40 foldable knives from his stomach. According to CNN, the unidentified father of two underwent a five-hour surgery Friday in Amritsar, a northern Indian city.

“We were so nervous… a small mistake could have taken the patient’s life,” Dr. Jatinder Malhorta, the lead surgeon, told CNN. “In my 20 years of practice, I have never seen anything like it.”

The patient told the news outlet that he was sorry to have let his family down and is thankful to the doctors and staff who saved his life.

Shocking story from Amritsar! Man eats 40 knives, lives to tell tale; said to the doctor "I felt like eating them" pic.twitter.com/TaLrk6oHQj — ANI (@ANI_news) August 20, 2016

“I don’t know why I used to swallow knives,” he told CNN. “I just enjoyed its taste and I was addicted … how people get addicted to alcohol and other things, my situation was similar.”

Doctors allegedly discovered that while some of the knives were folded, the man swallowed others unfolded, which measured about seven inches long.

The patient is reportedly now under the supervision of the hospital’s psychiatric team, and will be visited by independent mental health experts. He won’t be discharged until he is cleared by a psychiatrist, the report said.

“I will never do such acts ever again,” the patient told CNN. “I’m a new person now.”

