Indian doctors discover bracelet and earphones among 150 objects inside man's stomach

Patient died following surgery after complaining of a severe stomach ache

An X-ray showing 150 foreign objects in a man's stomach at Medicity Hospital in Moga, Punjab, India. Ajemr Kalra / Moga Hospital

Doctors in India’s northern state of Punjab were in “shock” after removing earphones, a bracelet, nuts and bolts and safety pins among 150 foreign objects from a patient's stomach.

The 40-year-old man was admitted to Medicity Hospital in Moga district on Monday complaining of severe stomach pain and nausea.

Doctors conducted X-ray scans which revealed metal objects lodged inside his stomach.

They immediately operated and during a three-hour surgery retrieved earphones, a bracelet, nuts and bolts, wires, lockets, buttons, wrappers and safety pins from his stomach.

The man died of sepsis after the surgery on Thursday.

“We were in shock when the X-ray reports came,” Dr Ajmer Kalra, the director of the hospital, told The National.

“There was a ball of foreign objects that we call radiopaque materials. After surgery, we found 150 articles including bracelet, zipper, nails, nuts and bolts. He was in pain for nearly a week,” he said.

“He was put on ventilator but we couldn’t save him. He had abdominal distension that led to perforation and eventually he developed sepsis and died.”

The case has stunned the medical fraternity. Dr Kalra said the hospital has been approached by researchers wanting to included the case study in journals.

In March, doctors in Jalore region in the northern state of Rajasthan removed 56 razor blades from the abdomen of a 26-year-old man.

In September 2022, more than 60 steel spoon handles were removed from the stomach of a man who they believe had become addicted to swallowing cutlery.

Doctors believed the patient was suffering from a psychological condition known as pica, which causes a person to crave and compulsively eat non-food items such as coal, metal, clay or dirt.