Coin-Op turtle surgery

bangkok - Thai vets on Monday 915 coins removed from a 25 year old sea turtle. The animal swallowed the coins in which bystanders were thrown for luck in his bathing. The coins and other objects that came from the turtle, weighing a total of 5 kilos, ultimately its ability to swim limited. Turtle Omsin- piggy bank in Thai- itself weighed 59 kilos.

The green sea turtle staying in a nature park in Sriracha east of the capital Bangkok. The surgery lasted seven hours, according to the vets such surgery in the world was first made.

' We think it is a month of time before the turtle is fully recovered, '' said Nantarika Chansue of the veterinary faculty of Chulalongkorn University, adding that the turtle will need another six months of physical therapy.

There was no direct estimate of the value of the coins, including some foreign and many rusted.