Bullet removed from man's lung after 15 years

An Iraqi doctor in the UAE has succeeded in removing a bullet that had settled inside the lung of an Afghan expatriate or nearly 15 years in one of the rarest medical cases, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Dr Inmar Sadeq at Al Noor Hospital in the oasis city of Al Ain performed the three-hour operation on the 29-year-old Nour Khan, who was wounded in the back in his village in Afghanistan in 1995, Emirat Al Youm said.

Doctors in Afghanistan had decided not to remove the bulletin from the upper part of his right lung on the grounds the surgery could damage the heart and blood arteries and decided to treat him with medicines, it said.

Khan was admitted to Noor Hospital after he started to feel excruciating pains in his lung and chest again, causing him severe cough mixed with blood.

Dr Inmar, who had gained experience in treating wounded persons in his conflict-battered Arab country, said he decided to remove the bullet from Khan’s lung to prevent further complications that could head to his death.

“It was a very rare case…perhaps the third such case in the world…the first cases involved two persons who had sharpnels in that part of their bodies and had to live in the intensive care unit for a long period of time…but this man here has had a normal life with a bullet in his lung for 15 years,” he said.

“It was a very serious and accurate operation and lasted nearly three hours…Khan was discharged from hospital four days later without any complications…he has returned to his construction job and is leading a normal life,” said Dr Inmar, who decided to keep the bullet as a “souvenir.”

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