By Tim Binnall
In a bizarre story out of Egypt, doctors removed a cell phone from the stomach of a patient who swallowed it a staggering six months ago. The very odd case reportedly unfolded at the Aswan University Hospital when an unnamed patient arrived at the facility complaining about having abdominal pains. When he was subsequently x-rayed to see what might be causing the problems, doctors were amazed to discover that he had a cell phone in his stomach.
Although the man did not explain why exactly he had swallowed the object, he sheepishly admitted to having done so six months ago. The patient went on to explain that embarrassment over the strange 'snack' kept him from seeking help for all that time. Instead, he simply hoped that the cell phone would pass naturally through his digestive system and only decided to go to the hospital when the pain from the object lodged in his stomach became too much for him to bear.
Saying that they had never seen a case of this kind, doctors at the hospital were understandably concerned about the dangers posed by the ingested cell phone, specifically injuries which could come from the object's battery, and rushed the man into surgery. Following a two-hour-long procedure, surgeons were able to successfully extract the object and it appears that the man did not have any lasting ill-effects from the medical misadventure.