Karnataka doctors remove 187 coins from schizophrenia patient’s stomach

Mangalore Today News Network

Raichur, Nov 28, 2022: Doctors at Karnataka’s S Nijalingappa Medical College have taken out 187 coins from the stomach of a 58-year-old man who complained of stomach pain and vomiting.

 

The doctors, who performed a two-hour surgery on Saturday after learning about the coins through an abdominal scan, said that Dyamappa Harijan, a resident of Lingasugur in Raichur district, was suffering from schizophrenia and had cultivated the habit of swallowing coins.

Dr Ishwar B Kalaburgi, who led the surgery at the medical college’s HSK Hospital and Research Centre, told The Indian Express that it was the first time he had taken out such a huge number of coins. “He recovered by Monday and when we questioned him, he said he was a beggar and whenever he got coins, he would swallow them and drink water. It was giving him some kind of pleasure. He felt the coins would digest,” he said.

“Schizophrenic patients think, feel and behave abnormally… We have taken out 56 coins of Rs 5, 51 coins of Rs 2 and 80 coins of Rs 1. We had to conduct a laparotomy (a cut in the stomach) to remove coins. Each time we took out five-six coins at a stretch, and it took a total of two hours to remove all of them,” the surgeon explained.

Courtesy: Indian Express