The nails extracted from the patient’s intestine weighed more than 1 kg.

Key Highlights A 48-year-old Gobargdanga resident is schizophrenic and used to gulp nails regularly

Doctors spotted several nails in his intestine after an endoscopy

KOLKATA: Doctors at the Calcutta Medical College & Hospital conducted a surgery on a patient with learning disability and extracted 639 nails from his intestine.

“The 48-year-old Gobargdanga resident is schizophrenic and used to gulp nails regularly. He had a complaint of pain in the stomach and used to vomit regularly. He was brought to the hospital two weeks ago. We spotted several nails in his intestine after an endoscopy. The nails had displaced the intestine," said Dr Siddhartha Biswas, associate professor of surgery who conducted the surgery.

The patient was admitted on Friday and as he had a plasma and-albumin imbalance, the operation got delayed. Biswas's team used a magnet to pull the nails out. “The nails are mostly bigger than 2 inches and are qui te sharp. But luckily , there was no major perforation in the GI tract," Dr Biswas said. The patient is stable and is under observation.

