Surgeons shocked to find 263 coins and 100 nails in stomach of man with suspected food poisoning

Surgeons treating a man with suspected food poisoning were stunned when it turned out he actually had 263 coins and 100 nails sitting in his stomach.

Maksud Khan, 35, was admitted to hospital with abdominal pains, leading doctors to suspect he was suffering from food poisoning.

But when they performed an endoscopy to investigate the cause they were amazed to find hundreds of coins, 1.5kg of nails, dozens of shaving blades, shards of glass, stones, and a 6-inch piece of rusted iron shackle.

An operation by surgeons at Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Satna, Madhya Pradesh, India, led to a whopping 7kg of foreign objects being removed from Mr Khan’s stomach.

The 35-year-old, who had been complaining of stomach pains for three months, is believed to suffer mental health problems and his family and friends had no idea of his bizarre eating habits.

Dr Priyank Sharma, who led the surgical team, said: “The patient was complaining of stomach pain, so we thought of getting an endoscopy done.

“We were shocked to discover that coins, nails and nut-bolts in his stomach. We come across such a case for the first in our career. This man looks mentally unstable as no sane person would do something like this.”

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According to doctors Mr Khan worked as a three-wheeler driver and would often swallow coins given to him by customers.

Relatives say he had slipped into depression and may have become hooked on eating metal objects.

One family member said: “Whenever he felt the urge to ingest a coin, he ingested it with water.”

One doctor who operated on Mr Khan said while the coins and nails hadn’t caused any problems initially, they were close to causing him serious harm.

“The operation was done in the nick of the time as some of the nails lodged had pierced his stomach, caused bleeding and resulting in loss of haemoglobin,” the doctor said.