A Colombian woman reportedly swallowed at least $7,000 U.S. dollars in a desperate act to hide the money during a fight with her husband, according to doctors in the South American nation who extracted the bills through surgery.
The 30-year-old woman swallowed rolls of 100-dollar bills. She told the local RCN television channel she had saved up the money for a holiday with her husband after having sold several electrical household items.
Doctors said they were able to surgically extract 57 100-dollar bills from the woman's stomach and intestines.
Director of Surgery at the University Hospital of Santander, Juan Paulo Serrano, said the majority of the bills were extracted through the stomach, whilst additional rolls would be passed through the colon.
The fact the rolls were not wrapped up or packaged suggest they were not swallowed for any form of illicit transport, Serrano said, but rather were ingested in an "act of desperation".
