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Doctors at St. Vincent's University Hospital found 55 batteries in a 66-year-old woman's colon and stomach. This is the highest number ever reported.
Doctors initially decided to wait in hopes that she would pass the batteries out of her body naturally. Though she released five AA batteries in the first week, subsequent X-rays showed the most were still stuck inside, and the woman began experiencing abdominal pain.
According to Huffington Post, after realizing that her distended stomach was hanging above the pubic bone due to the weight of the batteries, surgeons cut into her abdomen and successfully removed 46 of them. The total number of batteries ingested by the woman was 55.
Four additional batteries remained trapped in the colon. As described in the report, doctors "milked" them into her rectum to remove them from her anus. That makes 55, both AA and AAA, batteries.
"To the best of our knowledge, this case represents the highest reported number of batteries ingested at a single point in time," he journal article said.
Although the incident inspired curious bafflement, we must be reminded that the ingestion of batteries is a serious method of self-harm, no matter how unusual.
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