A man’s hospital visit took a bizarre turn when testing revealed multiple “foreign bodies” lodged in his heart, abdomen, pelvis, bladder and even his penis.
asserted
testing → take → heart
Doctors think he put them there himself.
asserted
he → think → them
The strange case unfolded at a hospital in China, where the man sought treatment for discomfort while urinating and blood in his pee.
asserted
man → unfold → pee
For the most part, he appeared to be in good health.
asserted
he → appear → health
The 35-year-old’s vital signs were stable, and he had no other symptoms or obvious signs of distress.
asserted
he → have → distress
But doctors noticed something unusual on an imaging test: a shadow-like shape near his heart.
asserted
doctors → notice → heart
Eager for a closer look, they ordered a contrast-enhanced CT scan.
asserted
they → order → scan
The test delivered a shocking surprise, showing multiple “needle-like metallic foreign bodies” scattered inside him.
asserted
test → deliver → him
Most concerning, perhaps, was a 1.4-inch pin that had pierced the fluid-filled sac surrounding his heart, known as the pericardium.
asserted
that → pierce → pericardium
Just how the needles got there was a mystery.
asserted
got → get → ?
The man, who had a childhood history of intellectual disability, couldn’t explain them, and neither could his father, who served as his legal caregiver.
uncertain
who → have → caregiver
Two years earlier, doctors at another hospital had removed two foreign objects from the man’s abdomen.
asserted
doctors → remove → abdomen
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.
asserted
people → lead → glass
While rare, the perplexing practice has been documented for decades.
asserted
practice → document → decades
One of the earliest known cases dates to 1936, when serial killer Albert Fish was found to have nearly 30 needles embedded in his groin, along with additional needles in his abdomen.
asserted
Fish → know → abdomen
Self-embedding can carry serious risks, including infection, tissue and organ damage.
asserted
embedding → embed → infection
There’s also the possibility that the objects could travel to other parts of the body and cause further complications.
uncertain
objects → ’ → complications
The patient in China was already facing a potentially life-threatening one.
asserted
patient → face → one
The needle near his heart posed a serious risk, but removing some of the others could also cause significant damage.
uncertain
removing → pose → damage
Ultimately, they opted to focus on the most dangerous object first.
asserted
they → opt → object
Surgeons successfully removed an intact, black metallic sewing needle from the patient’s pericardium, finding that it was corroded — a sign that it had been inside his body for or an extended period of time.
asserted
it → remove → time
Perhaps even more puzzling, doctors found no obvious entry wound or scar on the man’s chest that would explain how the object had gotten there.
asserted
object → find → chest
After surgery, the man’s heart function took a nosedive as it grappled with existing injury from the needle, along with the stress from surgery.
asserted
it → take → surgery
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.
asserted
function → discharge → appointment
As for the other needles scattered around his body, doctors opted to monitor them closely rather than risk complications from immediately removing them.
asserted
doctors → scatter → them
The Aporia
