Some place you should never keep your coin collection.

[truthteller]

Especially if it's a slabbed collection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Hundreds of coins found in patient's belly

 

 

Wednesday, February 18, 2004 Posted: 5:11 PM EST (2211 GMT)

An X-ray shows the patient's stomach filled with coins, necklaces and needles.

 

 

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- French doctors were taken aback when they discovered the reason for a patient's sore, swollen belly: He had swallowed around 350 coins -- $650 worth -- along with assorted necklaces and needles.

 

The 62-year-old man came to the emergency room of Cholet General Hospital in western France in 2002. He had a history of major psychiatric illness, was suffering from stomach pain, and could not eat or move his bowels.

 

His family warned doctors that he sometimes swallowed coins, and a few had been removed from his stomach in past hospital visits.

 

Still, doctors were awed when they took an X-ray. They discovered an enormous opaque mass in his stomach that turned out to weigh 12 pounds -- as much as some bowling balls. It was so heavy it had forced his stomach down between his hips.

 

Five days after his arrival, doctors cut him open and removed his badly damaged stomach with its contents. He died 12 days later from complications.

 

One of his doctors, intensive care specialist Dr. Bruno Francois, said the patient had swallowed the coins -- both French currency and later euros -- over about a decade. His family tried to keep coins and jewelry away from him.

 

"When he was invited and came in some homes, he liked to steal coins and eat them," Francois said.

 

The case history of the French patient, whose name was withheld, was reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

 

The patient's rare condition is called pica, a compulsion to eat things not normally consumed as food. Its name comes from the Latin word for magpie, a bird thought to eat just about anything.

 

Pica can take the form of eating dirt, ashes, chalk, hair, soap, toothbrushes, burned matches and many other things. Francois once treated a patient who ate forks. Most such objects are small enough to pass on their own, but some must be removed by doctors.

 

The condition is perhaps best known in children and pregnant women but is also sometimes linked to psychiatric illness.

 

A few details of the Frenchman's case were presented January 1 along with the X-ray -- but no explanation of the stomach mass -- as a challenge to New England Journal of Medicine readers in a fixture called "A Medical Mystery."

 

Dr. Lindsey Baden, an editor at the journal, reported that 666 readers in 73 countries -- mostly doctors or doctors-in-training -- contacted the journal to try to solve the mystery. Almost 90 percent settled on diagnoses consistent with pica, but only 8 percent correctly identified coins.

 

"This case serves as a reminder of important factors that should be considered in the care of patients who are mentally impaired," Baden wrote. "

 

[jom]

"This case serves as a reminder of important factors that should be considered in the care of patients who are mentally impaired,"

 

I think I'll have my whole collection reholdered so the slabs match.

 

 

jom

[Hoot]

What I want to know is why the docs waited 5 days to remove the coins? I mean, think of the damage done to the coins by a pH environment of 3 over the course of 5 days!!!

 

Hoot

[Bruceswar]

350 coins valued at $650.00 would not worry me at all.... that is less than 2 bucks each! What would worry me is how in the hell can you possibly swallow 350 coins....

[James_OldeTowne]

What kind of pedigree would such coins have?

 

James

[truthteller]

The Colon collection?

 

 

First they have to go to NCS for 'intestinal residue removal'.

 

 

 

 

 

TRUTH

[Hoot]

The Colon collection?

 

 

First they have to go to NCS for 'intestinal residue removal'.

 

 

I can't stomach this discussion...

 

Hoot

[DWLange]

Philadelphia's Mutter Museum has an extensive collection of objects retrieved from patients' stomachs, including numerous coins and tokens. A working tool for medical students, it is one of the eeriest places I've ever visited, filled with biological freaks and other scary stuff. Definitely worth seeing, though I don't recommend it for young children.

 

Here's a link: Mutter Museum

[jom]

I can't stomach this discussion...

 

That's a crappy thing to say.

 

 

jom

[Hoot]

I can't stomach this discussion...

 

That's a crappy thing to say.

 

 

jom

 

Yeah, but at least I had the guts to say it.

 

Hoot

[jtryka]

Did you guys miss the part of the article where it said this poor guy DIED from this???

 

He died 12 days later from complications.

 

It's pretty sad you all making bad jokes when this poor man lost his life...

[republican-migration]

Did you guys miss the part of the article where it said this poor guy DIED from this???

 

He died 12 days later from complications.

 

It's pretty sad you all making bad jokes when this poor man lost his life...

 

Yes that is very sad. This guy has problems and we dont need to make fun of them. Thank you Jytkra for taking a stand.

[truthteller]

My mother told me that when I was a toddler, I found a penny and swallowed it. She said it came out of me as a dime. So, for several years after she told me the story, I ate SBA dollars, hoping they would come out as $10 gold pieces. So far, no luck.

 

 

 

TRUTH

[jom]

Obviously, we didn't read the part where the guy actually died. There was no offense intended toward the deceased.

 

At the same time I think you people need to loosen up a bit....

 

jom

[Hoot]

Obviously, we didn't read the part where the guy actually died. There was no offense intended toward the deceased.

 

At the same time I think you people need to loosen up a bit....

 

jom

 

Agreed. There has always been some folly in death, considered widely. Ever check out the Darwin Awards? I have a book called the Last Laugh. It is a fantastic book for looking on the lighter side of death. And I apologize to those of you easily offended by such perspectives.

 

Hoot

[truthteller]

Argh! After reading some of those Darwin awards, I want to just die in my sleep.

 

 

TRUTH

[RobertB]

I remember when I was a young kid my sister ate a penny. A few days later, she passed it. How come he just didn't pass them, or, was he eating so many that some passed while others were 'log jammed' ?

[Leothelion]

This is an unfortunate thing to happen but it takes all kinds, although this is quite on the strange side.

An old girl friend of mine went nuts one day and ended up in some nut-house! Upon visiting her, I brought her some flowers. She said, how sweet of me and had put them in a vase that sat on a table. Shortly thereafter while this gal was giving me her analogy on life and what was best for her, some guy came into the room, sat down and literally ate the blessed things one by one. I could tell the guy didn't have it together too well so I didn't say anything. When it was time to go that's when she noticed the stems in the vase. She laughed, we laughed, I knew it was time to go and left.

 

Leo