Move aside, Superman. There’s a new man of steel in town.
A 42-year-old man in northern India is recovering following the removal of 40 knives from his stomach.
Surjeet Singh, a police head constable, underwent a five-hour operation in Amritsar, Punjab on Friday.
The dad of two was admitted to the private hospital after feeling abdominal pain and weakness. Upon a CT scan, the numerous knives he swallowed over a course of two months showed up.
As a matter of fact, Singh started consuming them after recovering from a road accident, according to USA Today.
It reported he said, “I met with an accident in Chandigarh and count not walk properly after that. I used to sit idle and started swallowing down knives. It pained a little.”
“When asked, the patient revealed he had some kind of psychological disorder,” Surgeon Dr. Jatinder Malhotra said, according to CNN. “He had a wild urge to consume metal. Even for us, the experienced surgeons, it was frightening.”
A team of doctors, including Malhotra, Dr. B B Goyal, Dr. Rajinder rajan, Dr. Arti Malhotra, and Dr. Anita operated on Singh. They spent nearly two days planning the surgery to prevent any harm to the patient.
“We were so nervous… a small mistake could have taken the patient’s life. In my 20 years of practice, I have never seen anything like it,” Malhotra told CNN.
In addition, he also said the cop swallowed some knives that were folded and some unfolded.
“When we took out the knives – some were found folded, some were open, and some had even started rusting and were broken,” Malhotra said to the news network.
Nonetheless, the surgery was a success and the patient is out of danger now. However, he must undergo a psychiatric evaluation before being discharged, according to the New York Post.
“I’m sorry I let my family down. I’ll be forever thankful to doctors and hospital staff for saving my life,” Singh said to CNN. “I will never do such acts ever again. I’m a new person now.”
“I don’t know why I used to swallow knives,” he added. “I just enjoyed its taste and I was addicted… how people get addicted to alcohol and other things, my situation was similar.”
However, he managed to keep his addiction a secret from his family, Malhotra told CNN.
On another note, the doctors advised him to consume spinach if Singh is craving iron in his body.
