Scissors pulled from Vietnamese man’s stomach 18 years after surgery

An undated picture made available on January 3, 2017, shows an abdominal X-ray of Ma Van Nhat, revealing a pair of partly broken scissors. EPA

HANOI // A Vietnamese man had scissors removed from his abdomen which were left behind during surgery 18 years ago, after reporting a stomachache.

Ma Van Nhat, now 54, underwent surgery in 1998 after a car accident and only recently discovered that doctors had left an unwelcome gift behind when they closed him up.

Doctors discovered the 15-centimetre-long scissors near his colon after a recent ultrasound. It was carried out after Mr Nhat reported stomach pains.

He had a three-hour operation at the weekend to remove the scissors and is now recovering well, said Ngo Trung Thang, the deputy head of general affairs at Gang Thep Thai Nguyen hospital, 80 kilometres north of Hanoi.

Mr Nhat had spent nearly two decades “eating, drinking and having a pretty normal life”, according to the Suc Khoe va Doi Song news site, the official mouthpiece of Vietnam’s health ministry.

Officials said they were searching for the doctors who performed the 1998 surgery in Bac Kan province, but have not yet tracked down any culprits.

* Agence France-Presse