The patient, a police officer, confessed that he had in fact eaten 28 knives over the course of 2 months. Doctors immediately prepared him for surgery to remove the dangerous objects which were causing massive internal bleeding.
Dr Malholtra and his team, however, suspected there may be more to the story and performed a second scan - revealing a further 12 knives.
5-hours of painstaking surgery later, all 40 knives were removed from the patient.
Later asked by the surgeon what drove him to eat such dangerous objects the man replied he had no idea.
‘This was the big question,’ said Dr Malholtra. ‘But the answer was very erratic. The man simply said, ‘I have made my mind to take the knives. I don’t know why. Impulse.’ They were taken on impulse only.’
Doctors suspect the man suffers from pica, a condition which causes compulsive craving of non-nutritive substances. It’s considered to be more common in children, and pregnant women.
The patient promised his surgeons he won’t do it again.
