Earlier this month a Massachusetts man was shocked to find a pea plant growing in one of his lungs. Sometimes, however, when strange objects are found lodged in a patient's insides it comes as less of a surprise. Here's our list of the ten weirdest objects that people have intentionally eaten.


HAIRBALL
In 2007, an 18-year-old Chicago teenager suffering from trichophagia – the compulsion to eat one’s own hair – was admitted to hospital complaining of abdominal pains and vomiting. She was found to have a hairball weighing a whopping 4.5kg blocking her entire stomach.


MAGNETS
Eating 10 magnets and 20 steel balls caused an American girl to suffer such extreme injuries that Indiana doctors compared them to “gunshots” or “stab-like holes.” Eight-year-old Haley Lents said she had eaten the objects – parts from a toy called Magnetix – because they “looked like candy.” She was given emergency surgery, and was deemed lucky to be alive by doctors.


COINS
“He likes eating coins”, explained a French surgeon at Cholet General Hospital, after treating a 62-year-old patient who, in 2002, was found to have swallowed 350 coins, an assortment of necklaces and several needles.