Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
AsiaWire / SFMU 1st Hospital
These images show the 4-inch rusty knife blade removed from a farmer’s head 26 years after he was stabbed during a violent mugging in the mid-1990s.
The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, also Shandong Qianfoshan Hospital, described the case as a “miracle”.
Images supplied to Asia Wire by the facility in Jinan, capital city of Shandong Province in East China, show the intact fruit knife blade retrieved from the back of goatherd Mr Duorijie’s head.
Mr Duorijie, 76, who is from the rural county of Haiyan in China’s north-western Qinghai Province, underwent two procedures on 2nd and 8th April.
At the end of March, he was flown more than 3,000 kilometres (1,860 miles) for the pro bono treatment after medics touring the countryside discovered his shocking case, which went largely untreated due to the limitations of local medical facilities.
According to Mr Duorijie, he was the victim of a violent mugging in 1994 but could not have the 10-centimetre (4-inch) blade removed at the time.
In 2012, he sought medical attention again after he began developing symptoms including a chronic headache. Again, the knife was kept in his head due to the lack of means to have it removed without posing a more serious threat to his life.
Doctor Zhang Shuxiang, one of the medics who found Mr Duorijie, explained: “When we found him while on a medical tour of Qinghai, we learned that experts had decided on more conservative treatment, prescribing only painkillers.
“But his symptoms began increasingly severe and unbearable. Due to the limitations of local hospitals, we decided to bring him to Shandong for the best possible treatment.”
According to reports, Mr Duorijie neurological symptoms included vision loss in his right eye as well as near-full paralysis in his left arm and leg.
The two-part life-saving surgery was designed by Shandong Qianfoshan Hospital’s chief ear, nose and mouth specialist Wang Qiron and deputy head Wang Baodong.
The interdepartmental team of medics included head ophthalmologist Dang Guangfu, who said: “CT and X-ray scans showed the blade at the base of the patient’s skull, lodged against his eye socket and pressing against his optic nerve.”
Chief neurosurgeon Liu Guangcun agreed that removing the knife blade – measuring 4 inches long and 1.2 inches wide – was the “only way to resolve the pensioner’s suffering once and for all”.
Doctor Zhang reported: “During the two-hour surgery, surgeons removed the rusty 10-centimetre (4-inch) blade.
“On 8th April, he underwent a second operation to clean his wound.
“He’s recovering well and can already walk around on his own.
“His head pains are gone, and he has regained full sight in his right eye.
“He can also open his mouth and no longer coughs.”
Mr Duorijie said: “I couldn’t laugh, yawn or even cough.
“The doctors have given me a second chance at life and ended my nightmare of more than 20 years.”
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