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Full title: A 44-year-old man went to the hospital after pus began oozing from his chest, where doctors discovered a knife that had been embedded in his body for eight years. According to the report, he showed no signs of chest pain, breathing problems, coughing, or fever, and was otherwise in good health.
Where's the article?
Link to article in spoiler. This is your warning, graphic images are embedded in the paper (wound with draining pus and photos from surgery).
Kivuyo, Nashivai et al. "An eight-year asymptomatic retention of a knife blade in the chest: a case report", Journal of surgical case reports vol. 2025,6 rjaf325. 31 May. 2025, doi:10.1093/jscr/rjaf325The CT scan and its reconstruction are wild.
From the surgery image, which I won't repost, I wonder if the handle broke off before/during the attack, or if it was broken down in the thoracic cavity?
Must have been a fall no? I don't know how someone could push a knife that deep without firmly gripping the handle. And if your hand is on the handle it's a natural stop.
The article says a stabbing. I struggle to imagine it too, but maybe a fall while it was still protruding, like you say.
Yeah, that sums up my question. Sliced, then stabbed and then a fall, or a cheap knife handle that let go once the attacker tried to pull it out.
The lack of imaging, even an x-ray is surprising, but I don't live in Tazmania so I don't know their level of access to such things. Or how willing the patient would have been to sit still for it.
The paper identifies availability of imaging tech and trained personnel as one of the issues in its discussion section.
I just keep thinking about what would happen if they fell on somebody or got into one of those awful "crowd crush" situations. Wouldn't take long for medical personnel to figure it out (at least in broad strokes) but I'm picturing a phantom stabbing mystery where they just find his body with a protruding blade that finally worked itself loose and finished the job from nearly a decade prior. Either that or the pointy bit is forced out the front and gets somebody else.
I wonder if whoever owns the rights to the Final Destination movies takes suggestions.
Thank you, this is a wild case study
That is not a small knife. What a crazy story. Thanks for the link.