Extraordinary moment Russian medics remove live mortar shell lodged in a soldier’s BACK
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Extraordinary moment Russian medics remove live and unexploded mortar shell lodged in a soldier’s BACK while he is still conscious
- Russian soldier feared shell would explode, pleading with medics not to touch it
- Shell had become lodged in soldier’s back after striking him and getting stuck
- Medics removed shell and sewed wound up, with lucky soldier surviving
- **WARNING – GRAPHIC CONTENT**
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Russian medics have performed an extraordinary operation to remove a mortar shell from the back of a soldier.
‘It hurts’, the Russian soldier can be heard saying as the surgery was carried out without general anaesthetic.
The tail of the shell had struck him and became embedded, BAZA media reported.
Medical staff a makeshift military hospital in Russia work to remove the unexploded shell from a soldier’s back
A Russian military medic holds up the tail of a shell that has been removed from a soldier’s back
The unnamed soldier – fighting in Vladimir Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine – asked the surgeon not to touch the projectile – ‘because it could explode’.
But the tail did not explode as the surgeons yanked it out with their hands.
A member of the team filming the procedure in a makeshift hospital near the war front line said: ‘Would you please show the shell?’
He held it up for the camera.
‘The shell was taken out, the hole was sewn up, and the patient is now on the mend,’ said the report.
The operation came after another this month in which surgeons donned body armour to the save the life of a Russian soldier who had ended up with a grenade inside him.
Junior Sergeant Nikolay Pasenko, 41, had been hit by a Ukrainian attack and an unexploded ordnance from an automatic grenade launcher became embedded inside him – below his heart.
Medical workers in a makeshift Russian hospital attempt to remove an exploded shell from a soldier’s back
The surgeons twist the shell’s tail to try and remove it from the wounded soldier, who feared it may explode
The ammunition had shattered his ribs, damaged a lung and lodged near his spine between the aorta and the inferior vena cava, the largest vein in the body.
After the lethal explosive showed up on X-rays, the gunner was initially hesitant to have it removed.
‘I was against it. I did not want the doctors to suffer as the munitions could have exploded,’ said Pasenko.
However, the procedure was successful led by military surgeon Lt-Col Dmitry Kim, who ignored the soldier’s warning that he could have detonated on the operating table.