Incredible scans show a 4-inch knife stuck in man’s face for 4 days after he was stabbed in the face during a drunken fight with his friend
- The blade was buried underneath the man’s left eye and was missing a handle
- Doctors released details of the strange tale in the prestigious BMJ Case Reports
- He suffered the stomach-churning injury during a drunken fight with his friend
Gruesome scans show a man who had a four-inch (10cm) knife stuck in his face for nearly four days after he was stabbed.
The unnamed patient, 25, from South Africa, suffered the stomach-churning injury during a drunken fight with his friend.
Medics revealed the blade, buried underneath his left eye and missing a handle, didn’t move around in his face because it had lodged in a bone.
Doctors published details of the unusual tale and an array of jaw-dropping scans in the prestigious British Medical Journal Case Reports.
The unnamed patient, 25, from South Africa, suffered the stomach-churning injury during a drunken fight with his friend
Medics revealed the blade, buried underneath his left eye and missing a handle, didn’t move around in his face because it had lodged in a bone
The man was initially taken to a clinic in Germiston, in the east of Johannesburg, but he was referred to a centre on the other side of the city.
He told doctors at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital he only had a headache and that it was painful moving his left eye.
Ophthalmologists – specialists in treating eye injuries and diseases – at the hospital were first consulted over the patient’s eye injuries.
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Because of the extent of the man’s injuries, they requested the help of ear, nose and throat specialists, maxillofacial surgeons and neurosurgeons.
The patient had to wait 24 hours before he was finally given a bed in the hospital, Dr Dairui Dai and his team revealed in the case report.
It took a further two days before the patient was able to have an angiography – a type of X-ray used to check the blood vessels.
No major blood vessels in his skull were torn during the complex procedure, which saw surgeons stitch up his eye to pull out the blade
The man also told his story and revealed the injury occurred when he was ‘trying to help a friend’. Further details are unknown
WHAT DID THE PATIENT SAY?
Greetings to you, I’d like to share my story with you. I was stabbed in the bottom of my eye when I was trying to help a friend… I can’t put blame on him.
By sharing my story with you I want to make sure you don’t play hero when someone is carrying a knife or a gun.
Imagine if that was a bullet that went through my skull, I would have been dead on that same day.
After the fight I went home to try and clean up so I can take a nap. My friends showed up. They are the ones who took me to the hospital and we had a little argument because I didn’t feel that I was stabbed.
The only time I realised was when they did an X-ray at hospital in Germiston. Then the doctor told me he was going to send me to another hospital in Soweto, where I stayed three full days before the operation.
I’d like to thank the team which participated in my operation. They have done the most beautiful job.
It showed he had suffered no ‘neurovascular compromise’, thought to mean that no major blood vessels in his skull had burst from the injury.
He was then scheduled in for surgery the next day, where medics gave him anaesthetic and removed the entire knife blade.
No major blood vessels in his skull were torn during the complex procedure, which saw surgeons stitch up his eye to pull out the blade.
The man, who later admitted he felt lucky to be alive, was discharged two days after the operation and was asked to go back for a follow-up a month later.
Writing in the journal, doctors said it is rare that a significant delay in imaging and treatment does not compromise the outcomes of stab victims.
The man also told his story and revealed the injury occurred when he was ‘trying to help a friend’. Further details are unknown.
Telling his own story, he said: ‘Imagine if that was a bullet that went through my skull, I would have been dead on that same day.’
The man added that he did not realised he had been stabbed until doctors at the first hospital he visited conducted an X-ray.
Dr Dai and colleagues wrote that penetrating knife injuries are common among young black men in South Africa.
They added: ‘Removal of foreign bodies should be done as soon as possible to avoid secondary complications such as translocation, bleeding and infection.’
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