Doctors in Ireland remove 55 batteries from woman's stomach and gut

Doctors in Ireland have removed as many as 55 AA and AAA batteries from the stomach and gut of a 66-year-old woman, reports recently said.

A report by Science Alert citing a report published in the Irish Medical Journal said the woman swallowed them in an apparent act of self harm.

The woman was treated at the St. Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin weeks after X-rays revealed the presence of these foreign objects in her body.


Since the batteries were not obstructing her gastrointestinal tract, doctors initially waited for the batteries to pass out of her body naturally.

But even after one week of waiting, only five AA batteries came out naturally, while the rest were stuck in her stomach and gut. The woman by then also started developing pain.

The doctors then cut a small hole in her distended stomach and removed 46 AA and AAA batteries. Four remaining ones in the colon were "milked" into the rectum and removed through the anus.

Thus, overall 55 batteries were removed from the woman's stomach and gut, and X-rays showed there were none remaining.

"To the best of our knowledge, this case represents the highest reported number of batteries ingested at a single point in time," Science Alert quoted the doctors as saying in their report.

The usual cases reported in medical journals are that of children swallowing small, button-style batteries.

The doctors also said the deliberate ingestion of so many large AA batteries as a form of deliberate self-harm was an unusual thing.

Swallowing batteries can be quite harmful, the report said. If they get stuck in the throat, saliva can kickstart an electric current which triggers a chemical reaction that burns the oesophagus. There are also the risks of chemical leakage from the batteries, and of GI tract obstruction.