Baffled surgeons removed a huge wad of banknotes from a man’s stomach.
The 28-year-old patient was admitted to the hospital, where he was given an abdominal ultrasound.
It showed an “acoustic shadow” in his stomach.
He was given an endoscopy, which revealed a foreign object measuring about 40mm across inside the organ.
The surgeons were able to grasp it with a snare, but it was too big to pass through his oesophagus.
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So they had to remove it via a surgical incision.
They were baffled when they realised the object was €1,500 (£1,280) in banknotes wrapped in plastic.
Images show how several €200 denomination notes were among the wad.
The surgery was performed at a hospital in Ankara, Turkey.
The patient was a Syrian man who’d been living in the country for six years.
He’d swallowed the cash package three months before the op as he tried to migrate to Greece.
He reportedly has a history of foreign body ingestion.
The case was published in the October-December 2023 edition of the journal Acta Gastro-Enterologica Belgica.
It was recently reported by media outlets.
The major gastrointestinal complications of foreign body ingestion are obstruction, perforation, and penetration.