Doctors at a private hospital in Faridabad have managed to successfully pull out 91 needles from the neck of a 56-year-old Indian Railway employee.
Experts said that Badrilal, a resident of Kota in Rajasthan, is likely suffering from a mental condition that caused him to injure himself and led to him inserting needles, including hypodermic needles that are used in hospitals, into his body.
‘Unique case’
Doctors said that there are at least 60 needles yet to be recovered.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, director of ENT at the Asian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), Dr. Lalit Mohan Parashar, said: “This was one of the most baffling and challenging surgeries. We are planning to submit this unique case to ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and Limca Book of Records. A number of hospitals declined doing the surgery in view of the challenges it posed.”
The pins were discovered by chance when the patient was X-rayed for a foot injury some months back, said Dr. Parashar.
“When Badrilal came to us, he was in a very fragile condition. A CT scan was done and we found that he had more than 150 pins pierced in different parts of his body, but mostly in the neck,” he added.
The needles were allegedly inserted over a period of six months. Most of the pins were in the neck region below the jaw, posing grave danger to vital nerves, arteries, respiratory and food pipe, and the carotid artery (which supplies blood to the brain).
Two surgeries were performed to extract the needles.
‘Was unable to eat’
Dr. Swapnil Brajpuriya, consultant ENT at AIMS, said that some of the pins that were removed were rusted indicating that the they must have been in the body for six months or more. “When Badrilal approached us, he was in a very serious condition. He was weak as he could not swallow food due to presence of pins in his food pipe,” he added.
Speaking about his father’s condition Rajendra Meena said that Badrilal had been unwell for the past 10 months. “In the last 4 months my father lost a lot of weight. He was unable to eat and was facing difficulty while talking. Now, after this surgery he is doing better,” he said.
AIMS cardiac surgeon Dr. Adil Rizwi said: “We used tracheostomy procedure and ensured that the pins were removed with precision as the neck has vital nerves passing through it. These nerves supply blood to our brain. If the flow is disrupted it can be fatal.”
“There are still more pins left in the body. Most of them are in the deeper structures of the neck and feet, but since they are not causing any immediate life threat, surgery to remove them can be avoided for now,” said Dr. N. K. Pandey, CMD of AIMS.
