In a bizarre incident, an inmate of Delhi’s Tihar jail swallowed a mobile phone to hide it from authorities. It was later removed by endoscopy.
Doctors performed endoscopy to bring out the mobile, 7 cm long and 3 cm wide, through the mouth with the help of snare. Dr Siddharth, Department of Gastroenterology from GB Pant Hospital, Delhi told ANI that the patient, who had an ingestion of a foriegn body, was brought to the hospital on January 15.
“An X-ray of of his abdomen was done which revealed that it could be a mobile phone. Endoscopy was done through the mouth and the mobile was caught using a snare. The mobile was taken out through the mouth,” Dr Siddharth said. The whole procedure was perfomed by the team of GB Pant Hospital led by Dr Siddharth and Dr Manish Tomar of the Gastroenterology Department.
According to Dr Siddharth, it is hard to swallow a mobile phone and only those used to doing it, can do so. “Usually jail inmates do it to hide it from authorities. It can be swallowed only by people who are habituated to doing this. It is a technically demanding procedure and requires skill to take the big bag out,” Dr Siddharth.
Dr Siddharth further said that he has handled ten similar cases in the hospital so far.
