FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Previous Volume 339:1333-1334 October 29, 1998 Number 18 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited Related Article by Mahoney, M. S. PubMed Citation

To the Editor: With respect to the "Medical Mystery" Image in Clinical Medicine (Sept. 10 issue),¹ a review of the student's financial-aid package will probably not reveal a full scholarship. "Body packing" is a method of importing drugs through U.S. customs. The student most likely swallowed the 70 or so sealed balloons or condoms filled with heroin or cocaine. The contents are usually passed through and recovered, but in the Image (Figure 1) they appear to have become impacted. Rupture of one of the balloons can lead to an overdose and death for the smuggler, or "mule."

View larger version (134K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 1. A . . . [Full Text of this Article]

 
References

HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org Comments and questions? Please contact us. The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2008 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.