Coins in the Stomach

CNN recently carried a story of a sixty-two-year-old man who was rushed to Cholet General Hospital in France, suffering stomach pain. His family told doctors the man had a history of mental illness and a penchant for swallowing coins, but nothing could have prepared the doctors for X-rays of the man's stomach. It was filled with 350 coins he had swallowed. The doctors performed surgery to remove the mass, but the man died of complications twelve days later.

Few men swallow coins, but millions of people are gorging themselves sick with money and materialism. The Bible warns that the love of money is a primary root of all evil, causing people to stray from the faith in their greed and pierce themselves through with many sorrows.

Turning Points

January 2006

Page 37

Greed; Money