Hospital evacuated after man shows up with WW1 shell stuck in his rectum
21 December 2022, 15:21
An 88-year-old Frenchman caused a panic after arriving at a hospital with a World War One artillery shell lodged in his rectum.
Hospital Sainte Musse, in Toulon, southern France, was evacuated after the unnamed pensioner turned up on Saturday evening hoping that someone would free the explosive from his anus.
Doctors understandably were worried that the shell could explode inside the man, who is understood to have inserted the item in his backside for sexual pleasure.
Fortunately bomb squad disposal experts arrived shortly after and determined that there was little risk that the shell would blow up, and managed to put surgeons at ease, French news outlet Var-Matin reports.
Doctors made an incision and surgically removed the First World War collector’s item, which measured at 8 inches long (20cm) and more than 2 inches wide (5cm).
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A spokesperson for Hospital Sainte Musse said: 'An emergency occurred from 9pm to 11.30pm on Saturday that required the intervention of bomb disposal personnel, the evacuation of adult and paediatric emergencies as well as the diversion of incoming emergencies.
‘We had to manage the risk in a reactive framework. When in doubt, we took all the precautions.'
The spokesperson added that the senior citizen was recovering well and was in “good health”.
It's not every day that a doctor has to remove an explosive from a patient's rectum, but this isn't the first time it's happened.
Just over one year ago, a military memorabilia collector in the Gloucester area got a World War Two artillery shell stuck in his rectum after he “slipped and fell” while tidying up.
The police and army were dispatched, but the projectile had been removed before officers arrived.