Bizarre: IGIMS doctors take out mobile phone from prisoner's stomach

Gopalganj: In a bizarre incident, an inmate of Bihar’s Gopalganj district jail reportedly swallowed a mobile phone during a surprise inspection due to fear of being caught by the officers. The inmate was rushed to the Emergency Department and the mobile phone was taken out by doctors at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) Patna on Wednesday.

The matter, however, came to light on Sunday after Ali developed extreme pain in his stomach. On being asked about the cause of his stomach pain, the prisoner confessed that he swallowed the phone on Saturday during the inspection.

The incident took place on Saturday when the prisoner was busy talking to someone over a mobile phone inside the jail when a police team conducted surprise checks. By the time he could hide the mobile phone, he hurriedly swallowed it out of fear.

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“The prisoner informed the jail authorities and narrated the sequence of events. He was immediately rushed to Gopalganj district hospital where the x-ray of the inmate revealed the presence of a foreign particle in his abdomen,” Manoj Kumar, Gopalganj jail superintendent, told PTI on Monday.

Salam Siddiqui, the doctor at the hospital’s emergency ward, said, “The prisoner was admitted in the hospital due to stomach pain. An x-ray of his stomach was taken and the presence of foreign particles was visible during the examination. There is a need to investigate it thoroughly”.

“The mobile phone, measuring 3.5x2 inches, was lying in the antrum of the stomach of the prisoner. Dr Ashish Jha, an associate professor in gastroenterology department, took it out through endoscopy,” medical superintendent Dr Manish Mandal told HT.

“While the endoscopy probe can go easily through the mouth, it is normally difficult to hold a foreign object as large as a mobile phone with the endoscope and take it out through the same route. Yet, our expert doctors completed the non-invasive procedure in around 30 minutes, even as my team of gastrointestinal surgeons was on standby to cut open the stomach and take out the foreign object,” added Dr Mandal.

A medical board was constituted by the hospital and the man was referred the prisoner to Patna Medical College and Hospital for further treatment.

The prisoner was arrested by Gopalganj police on January 17, 2020, under provisions of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act). He has been in jail for the last three years.

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