Doctors At New Delhi's Max Super Speciality Hospital performed life-saving surgery on a 45-year-old, who had a bullet lodged in his left lung for the last 16 years. According to the hospital, Shailender Singh, a resident of Kanpur – who sustained a gunshot wound in 2008 had lived with the bullet perilously close to his heart. However, recently it started causing life-threatening complications.

Singh had been experiencing severe chest pain and started coughing blood continuously. He said the bullet had got stuck in his left lung, very close to the heart, but then he was advised against surgery due to the dangerous location near the vital structures - including his heart and lungs.

He had been taking non-surgical treatment and remained free of any symptoms all these years.

Since last year, Singh's condition repeatedly deteriorated as the pain and coughing got worse. And so, a team of doctors led by Dr. Shaiwal Khandelwal, Associate Director, Thoracic Surgery, Max Super Speciality Hospital, evaluated him and removed the bullet with bronchoscopy as well as the damaged lung.

“The patient remained asymptomatic until last year when he developed left-side chest pain and started to cough out blood. The quantity and frequency of blood in his cough progressively increased. He then consulted us, and his CT scan suggested a bullet in the left lung hilum with collapse consolidation of the lung,” said Dr. Khandelwal.

“His bronchoscopy revealed a bullet pressing upon the airway with active bleeding from the left upper lobe of the lung. An emergency surgery was performed to remove the bullet and the damaged part of the lung,” he added.

Dr. Khandelwal said Singh's condition improved significantly after the surgery and hoped he would make a quick recovery soon.

According to Dr. Khandelwal, foreign bodies like bullets located at dangerous locations and cause no symptoms are usually left untreated. Sometimes, these bullets can lead to many adverse reactions like infections as they can migrate and invade vital structures as happened with Singh.

“It is extremely rare to see a long-standing impacted bullet cause life-threatening bleeding. As a life-saving measure emergency surgery is done and the whole lung may have to be removed. In this case, we removed only the cause of bleeding and the already damaged lung,” he added.

In medical terms, a foreign object is something that is in the body but does not belong there. Foreign objects can be inserted into a body accidentally or intentionally. They are also sometimes swallowed or can become lodged or stuck in various parts of the body, such as the ears, nose, eyes, and airways. Apart from pain, discomfort, and infections, foreign bodies can cause drainage, choking, and even breathing troubles.

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