A hospital’s emergency room sees a lot of strange cases. According to emergency doctors, some of them are wilder than our wildest imaginations. Even for such personnel, however, some cases stand out. One such instance is a woman who swallowed 55 batteries! Fortunately, they were mostly small cylindrical ones. You’d think it’s some sort of record. It is, in fact, a record. The Irish Medical Journal published a report on this case on September 15th, 2022.

Among all reported cases, 55 batteries were ingested at the same time, according to them. It makes you wonder if there was ever a previous record holder. So, who was this lady? According to the Irish Medical Journal Report, the record holder was a very old woman – 66 years old, to be exact. St. Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin had taken her in. An X-ray revealed to the doctors that she had a record number of batteries in her colon and abdomen…

Doctors initially approached the case cautiously. This means that they would simply wait and see how many, if any, of the batteries were excreted naturally. 5 AA batteries naturally fell out over the course of a week. Regular X-Rays over the next three weeks revealed that the 50 batteries that remained were not progressing. This is when the woman complained of stomach pain.

Due to the weight of the batteries, her stomach had distended to the point where it was hanging over her pubic bone. The surgeons had no choice but to perform surgery. They performed a minor gastrostomy and removed 46 AAA and AA batteries from the woman’s stomach. The remaining four were in the patient’s colon. In order to remove them, the surgeons “milked” them into her rectum with long forceps and an anal retractor. Fortunately, the case concluded with a successful recovery and no further incidents.

The case may appear absurd, but the reason is far from it. According to the doctors, the woman intentionally ingested the batteries in order to harm herself. According to the medical journal, such ingestion is a rare but not unheard-of method of self-harm. “Reported cases indicate that severe and fatal battery ingestions are on the rise, and current paradigms may be insufficient.” At the same time, many of the reported cases involve minors inadvertently ingesting button batteries.

As a result, the woman, in this case, may have been fortunate to receive timely treatment. However, ingesting batteries can result in serious complications such as “mucosal injury, perforation, [and] obstruction.” The possibility of cylindrical batteries causing acute surgical emergencies should not be overlooked.” To summarize, if any batteries are consumed, seek immediate medical attention.