8 years on, docs remove 6cm blade lodged in youth's chest

MUMBAI: Falling is a routine part of childhood, but a random fall he suffered eight years ago while rushing to school with friends came back to haunt Bhiwandi youth Shahfahad Siddique recently.

Doctors of Nair hospital operated on him last week to remove a piece of blade that had got lodged close to his right lung and went undetected all these years. "Siddique was lucky the blade, possibly from a paper cutter, got lodged above the ribs and didn't touch his lungs," said Dr Jayashri Pandya, professor of surgery at Nair Hospital.

Doctors said that Siddique's case is baffling because he never suffered any symptoms or discomfort because of the blade. "I don't remember the fall too well. I vaguely remember it was in 2006, but I don't remember the month," said Siddique, who underwent the surgery on November 28. Eight years ago, when he fell down, he rushed back home because he was bleeding from his chest. "My mother took me to a local doctor, who didn't even feel my wound before stitching it up," said Siddique.

It was six months ago that Siddique started feeling a pain on his right side. A doctor ordered an X-ray which showed that a 6-cm blade lodged below a rib bone. "I was shocked by the discovery," said Siddique, who dropped out of school to help his father run the family shop in Bhiwandi.

Dr Pandya said Siddique's case was unusual because he didn't suffer any symptoms for over eight years. "The blade was possibly not dirty and didn't result in any infection all these years," she said, adding that the body should have ideally kickstarted a defence mechanism immediately with the generation of pus that would have alerted doctors about the blade's presence.