Surgeons in Russia have told how they pulled a massive nail from a three-year-old boy’s stomach after he swallowed it to see what would happen.
The boy’s horrified mum rushed him to hospital in Tatarstan after he boasted about gulping down a nail as long as a man’s index finger.
X-ray images show the nail stuck sideways in his small intestine where it could easily have pierced his digestive tract.
Surgeons at the Almetyevsk State Children’s City Hospital used an endoscope to locate and remove the two-and-a-half-inch-long object in a painstaking procedure.
A hospital statement dated 12th said: “The young patient, while playing with the nail, decided to swallow it and later informed his mother, although the foreign object in his stomach did not bother him at all.
“The nail was lodged sideways and could potentially damage the intestinal wall.
“The doctors managed to manoeuvre the foreign object into the stomach, which was technically very challenging.
“Subsequently, they extracted the nail from the stomach using a Dormia basket.”
Local media reports say the boy was allowed home after being monitored in hospital for four days.
But the hospital warned parents: “If you notice that your child suddenly has increased saliva production, starts vomiting, or you discover the loss of a magnet, pin, battery, etc., immediately take the child to a doctor.”
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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