4/3/2004: Stomach full o' coin
 

http://cellar.org/2004/stomachcoins.jpg

A frenchman walks into the ER at Cholet General Hospital in western France. He complains of stomach pain and couldn't eat or shit. And this is what they found: a stomach containing a 12 pound mass of 350 coins, assorted necklaces, and needles.

were the coins worth enough to pay for their removal?

But at least it was a <i>low-carb</i> diet. :rolleyes:

He didn't have to pay, he died.

for real?

i would normally assume you were kidding, but there's no smiley in your post.

You need to send that one on the the Darwin Awards.

The guy suffered from pica, a mental disorder that causes one to have strong urges to eat things not normally eaten. Severe cases tend to eat a lot of the same thing; in this guy's case it was small pieces of metal.

Mild (non-compulsive) pica is often reported in pregnant women. I knew a pregnant woman once who told me she really, REALLY wanted to go drink some Pine-Sol from the kitchen and she couldn't figure out for the life of her why.

Ok, I want either a DSM-IV referrence or a legitimate web link for that one.

I'm not calling bullshit, but damn, it must be pretty obscure. I never ran across it at the hospital.

My goodness!! I mean, I've heard of cravings, but yikes at that one! :eek:

Yet another reason to not get preggers, IMO. ;)

Pica: Dirt Eating or "Geophagy"

Interesting: they say it's not an "eating disorder". IMO, eating things that you cannot digest (or aren't supposed to eat), sounds a bit disorderly to me. :confused:

[cartman]Personality disorders piss me off.[/cartman]

It's yet another, in a long and growing list of, personality disorders. They know better yet do it anyway, and exhibit no measurable signs of any form of organic brain pathology.

So what is the colloquialism for these guys? Eaters?

I'm sorry but this is my hugest internet pet peeve in the world...

Don't use the phrase "preggers" or "preggo" when refering to a pregnant woman

You don't know how annoying it is, it sounds like 14 year old girls gossiping on AIM "like OMG did you hear kelly is so pregger" It's like nails on a chalk board to me :( I just cant stand it its so....ugh...

Yeah, by the time he went to the hospital, all the organs under his stomach had crushed for some time. Everything had shut down and was infected to the max.

OK, like, whatEVER.

I came across this disorder at Willard Mental Institution, where I interned for a (thankfully) short while. This guy somehow ate a pair of jeans! Not sure if he cut them up or what. I also found pica mentioned in DSM III:

"The essential feature is the persistent eating of a nonnutritive substance. Infants with the disorder typically eat paint, plaster, string, hair, or cloth. Older children may eat animal droppings, sand, bugs, leaves, or pebbles. Pica usually remits in early childhood, but may persist into adolescence or, rarely, continue through adulthood."

It is a pretty rare disorder.

Hey, welcome to the Cellar Cory, it's always good to have another nut wrangler around. :)
I must, however correct you. "nonnutritive substance" = "bugs", is definitely not true. I'll let the animal droppings slide though.:haha: