Doctors remove 87 nails, 7 push pins after man eats them

Lilly Price | USA TODAY

A 25-year-old man from southern China ate 87 nails and 7 push pins earlier this month, which resulted in doctors performing a four-hour surgery two days later to extract the metal objects, according to Chinese video platform Mango TV.

Gastrointestinal surgeons of the First People's Hospital of Chenzhou, located in southern China's Hunan province, are seen on video removing the collective mass of nails residing in the man's upper body and a few additional nails that migrated near his groin.

The four-hour surgery was documented by Mango TV. The video shows surgeons removing each individual nail around 4 to 5 cm long. The man regained consciousness and is in recovery.

Swallowing that many nails is very dangerous for a variety of reason, gastrointestinal surgeon Huzhihui explains in the video. Doctors were concerned about the nails traveling to his intestines which could puncture them. The foreign metal objects' presence could also lead to abdominal infections, as the metal reacts with stomach acid, he explained.

The push pins were removed naturally through the man's digestive tract, Mango TV reported.

Although the man told doctors he ate accidentally ate a bun that was filled with nails, doctors speculate the man may have had suicidal tendencies since he gave them a "farewell letter" to give his girlfriend, according to Daily Mail.

"Maybe it's because they had an argument, because he couldn't get over it," Hu said in the video.

Follow Lilly Price on Twitter: @lillianmprice