Mass Of Coins, Necklaces Found In Man's Stomach
Doctors Blame Pica, Compulsion To Eat Things Not Normally Deemed Food
POSTED: 5:17 p.m. EST February 18, 2004
UPDATED: 5:23 p.m. EST February 18, 2004
BOSTON -- Babies will put anything in their mouths, but how about a 62-year-old man eating coins, necklaces and needles?
Doctors say the man suffered from pica, a compulsion to eat things not normally consumed as food. He also had a history of psychiatric illness, and family members had warned doctors that he ate strange items.
When the man could not eat or move his bowels, an X-ray revealed a 12-pound non-digestable mass in his stomach -- big enough to drop his stomach between his hips.
Five days after his arrival at a French hospital in 2002, doctors cut him open and removed his badly-damaged stomach and its contents. Hundreds of coins that he'd been eating over a 10-year period were found inside. He died 12 days later from complications.
The story is only now appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Another report stated he had about 650 dollars (american) in his stomach..
Honey, have you seen my Medic Alert necklace?
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