A team of surgeons at Ndola Teaching Hospital (NTH) has successfully removed an assortment of metallic foreign objects from the stomach of a 30-year-old male patient.
The patient, a resident of Ndola, was rushed to NTH after suffering severe abdominal pain and being unable to pass stool for an entire week.
According to the NTH Public Relations Unit, doctors at the facility conducted a medical assessment and ordered abdominal and chest X-rays.
The scans revealed that the patient’s stomach and intestines were packed with numerous metallic objects, causing a dangerous obstruction and placing his life in immediate danger.
The man was quickly taken to the operating theatre, where a surgical team worked for more than three hours in a high-stakes operation to remove the items.
“When the procedure was completed, the surgical table told the full story: among the extracted objects were two car spark plugs, 17 sharp wire pieces, one car key, two padlock keys, four one-kwacha coins (including one lodged in the large intestine), four bolts, one female bra wire stabilizer, and a ring wire,” the statement revealed
It was further disclosed that some of the items had caused perforations in the stomach wall, while prolonged retention led to chronic gastric outlet obstruction. Many of the objects were heavily corroded, suggesting they had been ingested over a long period of time.
“It’s not unusual to find foreign objects in a patient’s stomach, but this quantity and variety is something we hardly ever see. This appears to have been a gradual ingestion over time,” said Dr Mushikita Songwe, one of the surgeons.
The patient reportedly survived the operation and is in stable condition, currently undergoing further assessments.
This article was first published by Mwebantu on Friday, 8th August, 2025.
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