Relief for Yemeni national after 18 years as Bengaluru doctors remove bullet from his head

PTI, Dec 14, 2023, 8:35 AM IST

Facing an enduring challenge of deafness, a Yemen national is now fine after 18 years, thanks to the operation he underwent in a private hospital in the city.

Doctors removed a three-centimetre bullet from the man’s head.

“He has now returned to his country and is doing well,” a source in the hospital told PTI.

The Yemen national was caught in a crossfire. Shot in the head, he became an unwitting casualty of war, left to navigate a life marred by unrelenting suffering, Aster RV Hospital, where he was operated upon, said in a statement.

The bullet was deeply lodged in the left temporal bone, very close to the vital vascular structures, which posed a surgical challenge, according to the hospital.

The team of ENT surgeons led by Dr Rohit Udaya Prasad along with Dr Vinayak Kurle successfully removed the bullet from the ear of a Yemeni patient who had been living with the foreign object for an astonishing 18 years, the hospital said.

The surgery

The surgical team faced obstacles in obtaining clear imaging due to the bullet’s location, said the hospital, adding, that MRI was ruled out because of a metal object inside his head. Further, CT Angiography was done to identify the bullet along with its proximity to the vascular structures.

Doctors also employed x-ray imaging which provided a two-dimensional perspective. The decision to explore the possibility of removal was made, considering the patient’s persistent symptoms.

The surgery was done under general anesthesia carefully removing the surrounding bone to access the bullet. The doctors discovered a fibrous capsule around the bullet, preventing it from adhering to vital structures. This allowed them to successfully remove the bullet in one piece, the hospital said.