A very rich diet

PHAYAO: Doctors performing emergency abdominal surgery were dumbfounded when they found more than two kilograms of coins and other objects inside the patient’s gut. Sanguan, 37, was taken to Phayao Hospital by relatives after complaining of severe stomach pain on August 31. Doctors knew something was amiss when they looked at X-ray images of Sanguan’s stomach – it looked like the inside of a slot machine. Dr Nathapon Arayavuthikul said that after two hours in the operating theater, he and his surgical team had successfully removed 468 coins from K. Sanguan’s stomach. Also recovered were two marbles, some shiny stones and some bits of stainless steel of the kind used in making necklaces. “When we examined the patient, we found his stomach had become infected from trying to digest so many coins. However, we operated and were able to remove them all and the patient is now off the danger list,” said the surgeon. K. Sanguan’s mother, 67-year-old Petch, said her son began exhibiting strange behavior about three years ago. “He would ask for coins to go buy something, but then he would pop them in his mouth and swallow them instead,” she said. Concerned, K. Petch took her son to the Phayao Hospital, where he was diagnosed as schizophrenic. He was treated for about a month at the Suan Prung Hospital in Chiang Mai, and was late released under strict orders to refrain from eating coins and other shiny objects. At the beginning of August, however, K. Sanguan started to complain of abdominal pains that eventually became so crippling he could not stand. The emergency surgery saved his life and his prospects for recovery are good – provided he can break the habit of swallowing coins. “I’ll really have to watch him closely when we get home,” said his mother It was not reported whether the coins, with a total value of 665.50, were enough to cover K. Sanguan’s medical bill.