A French hospital was partially evacuated after a senior citizen arrived with a World War I artillery shell lodged in his rectum.
The 88-year-old patient visited Hospital Sainte Musse in Toulon to have the antique explosive removed — but instead sparked a bomb scare, French publication Var-Matin reported.
“An emergency occurred from 9pm to 11.30pm on Saturday evening that required the intervention of bomb disposal personnel, the evacuation of adult and paediatric emergencies as well as the diversion of incoming emergencies,” a hospital spokesperson said.
“We had to manage the risk in a reactive framework,” they added. “When in doubt, we took all the precautions.”
Bomb disposal experts at the scene determined there was little possibility the shell would explode inside the man, the New York Post reported.
“They reassured us by telling us that it was a collector’s item from the First World War, used by the French military,” the hospital stated.
Stunned doctors subsequently began the process of trying to remove the object — which measured almost 20cm long and more than 5cm wide — from the man’s rectum.
It’s believed the patient inserted the item into his anus for sexual pleasure.
“An apple, a mango or even a can of shaving foam, we are used to finding unusual objects inserted where they shouldn’t be,” one doctor declared. “But a shell? Never!”
Medics were forced to take the elderly man into surgery, cutting open his abdomen in order to remove the relic.
According to the hospital, he is now in “good health” and is expected to make a full recovery from the surgery.
This story was originally published by the New York Post and was reproduced with permission