Doctors have successfully removed 16 toothbrushes and a three-inch iron nail from a boy’s stomach after he began eating them to cure his addiction to eating soil.
Harish Devi, 14, ate the dental equipment after a holistic practitioner told him it would cure his soil-eating habit.
His family also believed Harish, from Uttar Pradesh, India, had been possessed by a ghost and that consuming toothbrushes and nails would help heal him.
But after eating the items, Harish started feeling pain in his abdomen.
He was taken to Baba Raghav Das Medical College, where the bonkers discovery was made.
Doctors operated on the 14-year-old and took out the toothbrushes and a three-inch nail from his insides.
Following the removal of the foreign objects, Harish’s health has improved and doctors are hopeful he will make a full recovery.
Gruesome photos show snippets from the surgery, with some of the toothbrushes being removed from the patient’s stomach.
One doctor can be seen holding up an X-ray to show the large iron nail in the middle of the youngster's body.
Other images show Harish recovering from his surgery on a bed.
There is a plastic tub of the toothbrushes taken from his stomach by his side.
The bizarre medical news comes a week after a woman, who claims she's 70 years old, welcomed her first baby into the world, making her one of the oldest first-time mums on the planet.
Jivunben Rabari and her husband Maldhari, 75, had been trying for a baby for several years - but finally welcomed their baby son through IVF this month.
The couple, from a village called Mora in Gujarat, India, have been married for 45 years. Jivunben said she doesn't have ID to prove her age, but she's insisted to local reporters she's 70 years old.
Dr Naresh Bhanushali, who helped the couple with their IVF, said: "When they first came to us, we told them that they couldn't have a child at such an old age, but they insisted.
"They said that many of their family members did it as well. This is one of the rarest cases I have ever seen."
