Man Swallows 40 Knives — Has Them Removed From His Stomach [Graphic Video]

Knife-swallowing might be a feat often displayed during magic shows, but one man took his strange addiction to new heights by swallowing 40 knives.

Warning: The below video that shows actual footage of the 40 knives being surgically removed from the man’s stomach is graphic and might be disturbing to some viewers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-h5NaLqXu8&list=WL&index=6

The Punjab police officer, who is 42 years of age, had 40 knives removed from his stomach, reports India Today?.

The man out of Amritsar was a cop who suffered from depression — and took more than two months to swallow the 40 knives that eventually ended up causing him a lot of stomach pain. He sought medical help when his pain from the 40 swallowed knives became too much to bear.

A team of five doctors went to work removing the 40 knives from the man’s stomach — with the physicians initially believing the man had only swallowed 28 knives, as he told them, but were surprised to remove 40 knives instead.

Dr. Jatinder Malhotra spoke with CNN about the reasons behind the troubled man’s decision to swallow 40 knives — and described just how scary the surgery was to remove the 40 knives for both the team of doctors and the patient. In the end, Dr. Malhotra reported that it took five hours to remove all 40 knives from the man’s stomach.

“He had a wild urge to consume metal. Even for us, the experienced surgeons, it was frightening. 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. He [the patient] says he swallowed some knives 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.”

The team of doctors planned for approximately two days before the surgery — discerning and plotting how the surgeons would remove the knives from the man’s stomach without causing harm. Ultimately, the surgery on Friday went off without a hitch in Amritsar, a Sikh city in Punjab.

There were all sorts of knives extracted from the man’s stomach, with the team of doctors extracting knives that folded, along with others. Some of the knives that were folded reached a length of seven inches or so when unfolded.

The stomach acid more than likely caused the knives to begin to rust within the man’s stomach. Apparently, those 40 knives did not pass naturally out of the man’s stomach and into the lower intestines, which might have been fatal.

The man, a father of two children, described being grateful that his life was spared. He apologized for letting his family down — but described that he did not know why he swallowed the 40 knives in the first place. The patient chalked his strange addiction up to liking the taste of metal.

“I don’t know why I used to swallow knives. I just enjoyed its taste and I was addicted… how people get addicted to alcohol and other things, my situation was similar.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MasOF65O9ZM&index=17&list=WL

The patient is believed to have a rare condition and mental disorder that prompted him to swallow the 40 knives. He is receiving treatment from the hospital’s mental health experts to ensure the rationale behind his condition won’t prompt him to swallow 40 knives again anytime soon.

The man has reported that he simply loved the way the blades tasted. He kept the fact that he swallowed 40 knives secret from his family, that is, until he was forced by his pain to seek treatment. The man now claims that he won’t touch knives anymore — let alone swallow 40 knives.

The doctors advised him to eat spinach if he had a craving for iron — and not to eat 40 knives, or even one knife, ever again.

[Image via Shutterstock]