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US man tries to repair hernia with butter knife

27 July 2011 [14:48] - TODAY.AZ
A 63-year-old California man has tried to operate on his own hernia by cutting open his stomach with a six-inch butter knife.

The man was apparently frustrated with the painful medical condition, and took matters into his own hands - alarming his wife, who immediately called 911.

"She said her husband was trying to remove a hernia. He was frustrated," said Sergeant Tom Lorenz of Glendale police, east of Los Angeles, after the incident Sunday.

"Pending arrival of paramedics, he removed the butter knife himself," he said.

The man was placed on a psychiatric hold - a legal term meaning confining a patient to prevent them from self-injury - and taken to hospital where he was reported to be in a stable condition.

But doctors said he had probably only made his condition worse.

"It is absolutely impossible for someone to fix their own hernia," Sam Carvajal, a surgeon at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

"Obviously, there is some amount of psychosis going on," said Mr Carvajal, adding that repairing a hernia is relatively easy, and usually takes about 20 to 30 minutes for a trained surgeon.


/The Telegraph/

URL: http://www.today.az/news/interesting/91478.html

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