Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency:  Newsflash

This large needle has been removed from an 18-year-old woman’s gut after she swallowed it as a baby.

Gozdenur Akdag, 18, swallowed the needle at her family’s home in the south-western Turkish city of Aydin when she was one year old.

After suffering from abdominal pain over the years, Akdag visited the Adnan Menderes University Application and Research Hospital, where doctors found the large needle in her intestines.

Dr Murat Yilmaz performed the two-hour operation and managed to remove the needle.

Speaking about the incident after the operation, Akdag said that after swallowing the needle as a baby, she was taken to hospital by her parents and informed by doctors that it had been removed after around two years of treatment.

She carried on as normal after the treatment, but continued to suffer stomach pain and recently went back to the hospital for checks.

Akdag said she was shocked when doctors told her the needle was still there.

She added: “I got rid of the needle after 17 years. I am very grateful to my doctor. We went through a really difficult process, but now I feel very good, I am happy.”

Dr Murat Yilmaz said the needle was hidden in fatty tissue in the patient’s intestines.

He added: “When an object like a needle is removed from the intestine, it can cause internal bleeding if damages organs such as the liver or spleen. The patient is lucky in this respect. Likewise, the needle did not cause a perforation in the intestine. The hole had closed by itself.”

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