Hospital Evacuated After Man Arrives with WWI Explosive Stuck in His Rectum – See Photos

Doctors were startled at Hospital Sainte Musse in Toulon, France, when an elderly man arrived with a World War I artillery shell stuck in his rectum. Fear of the antique explosive detonating resulted in the hospital being partially evacuated.

According to the New York Post (NYP), citing reports from French publication Var-Matin, the “bomb scare” occurred when an 88-year-old patient visited the hospital to have the explosive item removed on Saturday evening. A spokesperson from the hospital said that the “emergency occurred from 9 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.”

Following the patient’s arrival, the hospital took all available precautions by alerting bomb disposal personnel, evacuating the “adult and pediatric emergencies,” and diverting “incoming emergencies.” Given that the artillery shell was a collector’s item, the bomb disposal experts told the medics there was little chance it would explode inside the patient.

“They reassured us by telling us that it was a collector’s item from the First World War, used by the French military,” the hospital said. After the advisory, the doctors started the surgery, which included cutting open the patient’s abdomen to extract the object.

The explosive item is said to be almost 8 inches long and more than 2 inches wide. According to NYP, it is believed that the man inserted the object up his anus for sexual pleasure.

The subsequent report states that the hospital said that the elderly patient is currently in “good health” and will fully recover from the operation. The physicians had discovered other strange objects inside the bodies of patients.

A doctor reported that some patients had an “apple, a mango, or even a can of shaving foam” inside them. The doctor added that while they are “used to finding unusual objects inserted where they shouldn’t be,” it was their first time finding an artillery shell.