Man swallows tiny idol, undergoes surgery

He is in the habit of consuming holy water in which the idol is kept immersed

A man from Belagavi, who is in the habit of consuming holy water in which a tiny idol is kept immersed, accidentally swallowed it and finally had to be operated upon to get it removed.

When the 45-year-old approached the ENT Department of KLES Dr. Prabhakar Kore Hospital and MRC in Belagavi on Thursday with a complaint that he had swallowed a foreign body, the doctors were shocked to see an image of Lord Balakrishna in the X-Ray taken of his chest and neck.

Later, it came to be known that the man is in the habit of drinking holy water kept in a vessel with the idol immersed in it. And, when he drank the holy water from the vessel on Thursday, he accidentally swallowed the tiny idol also. Subsequently, he suffered breathing difficulty and throat pain.

After endoscopy, the patient was immediately rushed to the operation theatre for an emergency surgery. The operation looked complex as Lord Balakrishna’s foot was stuck in the food pipe of the patient. A team of doctors comprising Priti Hazare and Vinita Metgudmath, assisted by anaesthetist Chaitanya Kamat, performed the complex procedure through endoscopy and removed the idol carefully giving a big relief to the patient.