Beer bottle stuck in man's colon

2007-10-19 10:25

Nairobi - Doctors in central Kenya have successfully removed an empty half-litre (one-pint) beer bottle from a man's colon, say reports, but how it got there remains a mystery.

The 26-centimetre bottle was removed on Monday from the colon of the 33-year-old man after two operations in Kiambu District Hospital, about 20km from the capital, the Daily Metro newspaper reported.

The hospital's administrator Patrick Okoth said: "The first operation was not successful, forcing us to perform a second one, which went fine."

Although the man, whose identity was not disclosed, said he had pushed the bottle through his rectum, Okoth said it was nearly impossible for the man to have done that by himself.

"It would have been too painful. He would have had to use a whole length of his arm," Okoth said, adding that the bottle inflicted "no damage at all" in the man's internal organs.

Instead, Okoth said the man could have been assaulted by other people, but that it was too embarrassing for him accept that, the Metro said in its story which was accompanied by an X-ray image of the bottle in the stomach.

Hospital authorities refused to allow the patient to be interviewed, citing patient-doctor confidentiality.

- AFP