NEW DELHI (AFP) — An Indian man has survived an operation to remove a 1.5-metre (five-foot) long iron bar that stabbed right through his chest, reports said Friday, calling it a medical miracle.
The rod was lying on a construction site when the taxi Supratim Dutta was travelling in smashed into it on Saturday.
The bar crashed through the car's bonnet and dashboard before hitting the 23-year-old, who was sitting in the car's front passenger seat, The Times of India said. It measured 10 centimetres by 10 centimetres (four inches by four inches).
The man remained conscious and called family and friends from his mobile phone while he waited at the scene for an hour before being taken to hospital, the newspaper reported.
"I was shocked to see him. He was on the stretcher holding the iron angle. Groaning in pain, he kept asking people to move aside so that the angle (of the rod) wasn't disturbed," Tej Prakash, one of the first doctors to see Dutta, was quoted by the paper as saying.
Indian media described the three-hour-long surgery as a miracle after the iron bar, weighing six kilograms (13.2 pounds), cut through his liver, stomach, spleen and left lung.
It also perforated the IT specialist's diaphragm in two places and broke a rib, but missed his heart, The Times of India reported.
"In my 35-year long career, this is the first time that I have seen a case like this," the newspaper quoted doctor M.C Misra as saying.
Doctors at the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences said the surgery was difficult as the rod's angle prevented doctors from establishing the extent of internal damage.
Three of Dutta's ribs had to be cut to free the rod from his body.
Doctors said he was in a stable condition, but post-surgery infection could pose a danger to his life.
The man's father, Sukumar Dutta, told the paper his son's strength of character saved him though he was unsure how long it would take before he made a full recovery.
"It was all because of his strong will to live," he said.
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