Doctors in Ethiopia extracted over a hundred nails and other similar sharp objects from the stomach of a patient. Dawit Teare, a surgeon at St. Peter’s Specialised Hospital, said the patient suffers from a mental illness and had apparently consumed metals, sharp objects including 10 centimetre-long nails, four pins, a toothpick and pieces of broken glass.

Talking about the 33-year-old patient, Dawit told AFP, "The patient has been suffering from mental illness for the last 10 years and had stopped taking his medication two years ago, one probable reason he started consuming inanimate objects." Man Nearly Dies After He Bites His Nails: 8 Horrible Things Nail-Biting Does to Your Health.

It was a two-and-a-half long operation and Dawit added that the patient was now recovering well. He further said, "I'm guessing he consumed the objects with the help of water, however, he is a lucky person that those sharp objects didn't cut his stomach. That could have led to serious infections and even death."

The surgeon further said that he has attended similar cases where people with mental illness have swallowed multiple sharp objects. This was his first surgery where the number of harmful objects was quite a lot.

In a similar incident, doctors at Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) had successfully removed 639 nails from the stomach of a 45-year-old man with mental illness in 2017. Only after the doctors began the operation they realised that his stomach was full of nails. The man had schizophrenia but the doctors suspected that he could also be suffering from Pica disorder, associated with the appetite for non-food items.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 23, 2018 07:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).