Doctors operate on man with more than 150 sharp pins lodged inside body

In a shocking discovery, doctors in India found more than 150 pins lodged in a man's body, including his artery, wind pipe, esophagus and vocal cord.

Badrilal Meena, 56, from a village in Kota, Rajasthan has undergone three surgeries so far and doctors have removed 91 pins from his neck, abdomen, upper and lower limbs.

Meena told doctors he has no clue how the pins got into his body, but doctors suspect the patient is suffering from a mental illness that made him swallow the pins.

The doctors, who operated on him at the Asian Institute of Medical Sciences, Faridabad in the neighbouring Haryana state, said that some of the retrieved pins are so rusted that they could have been inside the man's body for at least six months.

A body scan ahead of the two recent surgeries on 29 June and 2 July showed sharp pins pierced inside Meena's neck, of which 10 were piercing his windpipe, three into his food pipe, one in the vocal cord and two lodged in his carotid artery — the main artery that supplies blood to the brain, according to the Hindustan Times.

The first surgery was conducted at the Northern Railway Central Hospital in New Delhi when doctors removed seven pins from his neck and four from the upper and lower limbs.

Meena, an Indian railway employee, reportedly saw a doctor after he began losing weight and developed several health problems. "I do not know how the pins got in there," he told doctors after the shocking discovery inside his body. His son and wife also said they had no clue if he was swallowing the pins.

However, doctors now plan to conduct psychiatric tests on him to ascertain if any mental condition makes him swallow the metal pins. He has reportedly been referred to Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in capital New Delhi, but he refused to take psychiatric tests.

"We wanted to admit him for psychiatric evaluation. He kept denying there was any problem and refused to be admitted," said Dr Smita Deshpande, head of the department at the hospital.

"I cannot give a diagnosis, but he might be delusional and psychotic. He could have inserted the pins because he imagined he was following commands of the voices in his head.

"We have had cases where people have killed others, cut off their testicles or harmed themselves because a voice told them to do so. Or it could be because he wanted to inflict self-harm," the doctor added.