This story might get under your skin.<\/p>\n
A man\u2019s hospital visit took a bizarre turn when testing revealed multiple \u201cforeign bodies\u201d lodged in his heart, abdomen, pelvis, bladder and even his penis.<\/p>\n
The most disturbing part? Doctors think he put them there himself.<\/p>\n
Surgeons operated on a patient after doctors discovered multiple foreign objects in his body, including one that had pierced his pericardium. Jacob Lund \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
The strange case<\/a> unfolded at a hospital in China, where the man sought treatment for discomfort while urinating and blood in his pee.<\/p>\n For the most part, he appeared to be in good health. The 35-year-old\u2019s vital signs were stable, and he had no other symptoms or obvious signs of distress.<\/p>\n But doctors noticed something unusual on an imaging test: a shadow-like shape near his heart.<\/p>\n Eager for a closer look, they ordered a contrast-enhanced CT scan. The test delivered a shocking surprise, showing multiple \u201cneedle-like metallic foreign bodies\u201d scattered inside him. <\/p>\n Most concerning, perhaps, was a 1.4-inch pin that had pierced the fluid-filled sac surrounding his heart, known as the pericardium.<\/p>\n Just how the needles got there was a mystery. The man, who had a childhood history of intellectual disability, couldn\u2019t explain them, and neither could his father, who served as his legal caregiver.<\/p>\n But there was a clue. Two years earlier, doctors at another hospital had removed two foreign objects from the man\u2019s abdomen.<\/p>\n That history led them to suspect that the man was self-embedding, a form of non-suicidal self-injury in which people deliberately insert foreign objects into their bodies, such as glass, staplers, paper clips and wire. <\/p>\n Doctors believe that the man inserted the needle-like objects into himself. Yingxin Ren et al.<\/p>\n While rare, the perplexing practice has been documented for decades. One of the earliest known cases dates to 1936, when serial killer Albert Fish<\/a> was found to have nearly 30 needles embedded in his groin, along with additional needles in his abdomen.<\/p>\n Similar cases were reported in the 1980s<\/a>, before the behavior gained wider attention in the 2010s, when doctors began reporting more cases involving teenagers <\/a>who deliberately implanted foreign objects beneath their skin.<\/p>\n Self-embedding can carry serious risks, including infection, tissue and organ damage. There\u2019s also the possibility that the objects could travel to other parts of the body and cause further complications.<\/p>\n The patient in China was already facing a potentially life-threatening one. The needle near his heart posed a serious risk, but removing some of the others could also cause significant damage.<\/p>\n Ultimately, they opted to focus on the most dangerous object first. <\/p>\n The needle removed from the man\u2019s pericardium posed a life-threatening risk. Yingxin Ren et al.<\/p>\n Surgeons successfully removed an intact, black metallic sewing needle from the patient\u2019s pericardium, finding that it was corroded \u2014 a sign that it had been inside his body for or an extended period of time. <\/p>\n Perhaps even more puzzling, doctors found no obvious entry wound or scar on the man\u2019s chest that would explain how the object had gotten there.<\/p>\n After surgery, the man\u2019s heart function took a nosedive as it grappled with existing injury from the needle, along with the stress from surgery. <\/p>\n The patient was discharged from the hospital nine days after surgery, and at a nine-month follow-up appointment, he was still clinically stable and his heart function had recovered.<\/p>\n As for the other needles scattered around his body, doctors opted to monitor them closely rather than risk complications from immediately removing them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story might get under your skin. 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