Doctors say they found a knife blade that had been in a man’s chest for eight years. (PubMed Central)
Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
Doctors say a man was living with a knife blade embedded in his chest unknowingly for nearly a decade.
According to PubMed Central, an electronic archive of biomedical and life sciences journal articles, the 44-year-old man was seeking medical care for pus leaking just below one of his nipples.
Doctors said the patient, who did not want to be identified in the article, told them that he wasn’t experiencing any chest pain or difficulty breathing.
But he was dealing with an area on his chest that seemed infected for a week-and-a-half.
Doctors noted that the man said he was stabbed multiple times in the face, back, chest and abdomen eight years prior. He received treatment at a health clinic at that time, where his wounds were stitched up. However, a radiological investigation was not conducted due to limited resources in the area.
The man was finally able to receive complete treatment for the stab wound after visiting the general team at the Muhimbili National Hospital.
Doctors said initial imaging showed the knife blade had entered through the man’s right shoulder area and was still lodged in his chest.
The medical team said they were able to remove the blade, with the man being discharged from the hospital 10 days following the procedure, according to the article dated May of this year.
Doctors said the patient recovered well after surgery and noted there was a significant risk that the blade could have been fatal if it hadn’t removed.
