A 13-year-old boy in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province inserts a 10-centimeter needle into his urethra for more than 15 hours. Doctors perform surgery to remove the needle. Photo: screenshot of video by Knews

A 13-year-old boy in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province inserted a 10-centimeter needle into his urethra for more than 15 hours claiming to refresh himself when doing homework.

The boy's mother in Xi'an found her child was acting oddly during the summer holiday, Knews reported Saturday. 

"He walked slower than before. Then I asked him to walk quickly but he still walk slowly," the mother said. She and the boy were not named in the article.

"I often feel sleepy when doing homework," the boy was quoted by the mother as saying. "I just wanted to refresh myself, so I stuck the needle into the urethra."

The mother sent him to hospital. 

The needle was down deep in the duct by which urine is conveyed out of the body, close to the bladder, Wang Shengxing, a surgeon at the urinary surgery department of a local hospital, said.

The needle could cause an infection or pass through the urethra to pierce the vessels of the pelvis if stuck there too long, Wang said.

Doctors performed surgery to remove the needle.

The boy was almost okay after the operation, the media said.

Knews