TORONTO – German doctors say a man spent 15 years with a pencil in his head following a childhood accident.
Doctors said the 24-year-old man from Afghanistan sought help in 2011 after suffering for years from headaches, constant colds and worsening vision in one eye.
A scan showed that a 10-centimetre pencil lodged from his sinus to his pharynx and had injured his right eye socket.
Here’s a look at people who survived after foreign objects—often staple items in one’s toolbox— were found and successfully removed from their bodies.
“Did you get that out of the doctors joke file?”
In January 2012, Dante Autullo thought he “merely” cut himself with a nail gun while building a shed in his home in Chicago.
“It really felt like I got punched on the side of the head,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I thought it went past my ear.”
Autullo said he continued working but felt nauseated the following day after waking up from a nap. He went to his local ER room, where doctors took an x ray and found a 3 1/4-inch (7.62 centimetre) nail, millimeters from the part of the brain that controls motor function.
“When they brought in the picture, I said to the doctor ‘Is this a joke? Did you get that out of the doctors joke file?’” Autullo recalled. “The doctor said ‘No man, that’s in your head.’”
He was rushed by ambulance to another hospital for more specialized care. The surgery took two hours, and the part of the skull that was removed for surgery was replaced with a titanium mesh.
Screwdriver in the forehead
In March, polish doctors said a 25-year-old man underwent a three-hour operation to remove a screwdriver lodged about five centimetres—or two inches—into his head.
The man apparently fell unconsciousness and once he regained consciousness, he was at first aware only of pain in a hand before realizing something else was wrong.
He walked to his car, looked in a mirror and noticed the screwdriver, penetrating his forehead just above his right eye.
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Doctors said the object did not damage the man’s eye or brain. The man allegedly smoked a cigarette before calling a neighbour who got him to the hospital.
Rusty 4 inch knife blade
According to NY Daily News, Li Fuyan lived with a rusty 4-inch knife blade in his head for about four years—all without even knowing the object was lodged in his skull.
Li Fuyan said the knife may have been lodged after a robber had stabbed him on the right side of his jaw years prior. For years, he suffered from frequent headaches, trouble swallowing and some bleeding in the mouth. No other doctors, however, discovered the blade in the side of his mouth until a routine check in 2011.
Watch the video below:
Six-inch fishing spear in the head
In 2009, doctors said Brazilian man Emerson de Oliveira Abreu was lucky to be alive after he shot himself in the head with a fishing spear.
Abreu said he was fishing off the coast of Rio Janeiro we he “took the devastating shot.”
The spear, according to Huffington Post, ricocheted off some rocks and into Abreu’s brain.
Shortly after the surgery, doctors said that Abreu was expected to survive and his sense of smell might be affected.
Giant 10-pound hairball
Some hairballs just can’t be coughed up, especially if you aren’t a feline.
Back in 2007, CNN reported that an 18-year-old woman in Chicago “complained of a five-month history of pain and swelling in her abdomen, vomiting after eating and a 40-pound weight loss.”
Doctors said the patient told them she had a habit of eating her hair for many years—a medical condition called trichophagia.
The mass of what is described as “black, curly hair” weighed 10 pounds.
– with files from The Associated Press
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