Doctors remove 2-foot rusty metal rod from a woman’s bottom after it pierced her when she slipped and fell in her backyard
A 65-year-old woman has escaped death after being impaled with a nearly two-foot-long metal rod.
The rusty rod was sticking out of the ground in a pasture in India where the woman was tending her cows when she was thrown from her feet and fell right on top of itback first.
The blood entered through her rectum, perforated the rectum and spread to the space behind the peritoneum, the lining that covers the organs in the abdomen.
According to a medical report on her case, the rod miraculously prevented damage to her blood vessels and organs.
But she needed antibiotics and a tetanus shot to prevent infection, as the rod was rusted and covered in mud and cow dung.
The CT scan shows that the rusty metal rod bypassed crucial blood vessels and organs and miraculously left no serious damage
She underwent a two-hour operation to have the rod inserted through her rectum and the perforation repaired.
Doctors in Manipal, India, reported that it was a rare case where the woman was impaled through her buttocks. It is even rarer because it did not leave any serious, permanent damage.
According to the patient: ‘We have a large field near our house and we plant iron rods on the ground to support the climbing plants.
‘That day when I went out, it was still dark and raining. I took my cow out to graze and I had the rope wrapped around my wrist.
“I don’t know why that cow got so excited and started pulling me with force. I’m an old lady, so I lost my balance and ended up on my bottom, right on top of one of those bars. It happened suddenly and it didn’t give me time to realize it.”
She screamed in pain and could not walk. Her family and a neighbor ran into the field to help her, but there was not much they could do.
The rod was over 19 inches long and entered the woman’s body when she fell on it while tending to her cows in a pasture
A neighbor took her to a local health center, where a doctor on duty immediately called an ambulance to take her to a better equipped hospital.
She added: ‘I was very scared when they said I needed immediate major surgery to remove the rod and that I may have a stoma (an opening in the abdomen through which waste products can leave the body).
‘I was very shocked and worried when they said that my stool would come out through my stomach. Then they explained to me that it would be temporary to save my life and made me realize that the operation was necessary.’
After the procedure she suffered from nausea, abdominal pain and was unable to walk, but after a few days she regained her mobility and her pain disappeared.
All in all, her recovery took about 10 days and she was able to go home in relatively good health.
The patient said, “After the reversal surgery, I feel much better now. I am grateful to all the doctors and nurses who took such good care of me.”
The case study was published in the International Journal of Case Reports in Surgery.
The most notable example of an impalement in history was the cruel Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (present-day Romania), who wanted to consolidate his power by gathering hundreds of nobles for a banquet.
It became a very bloody affair, with those present being stabbed and their still-living bodies impaled.
He was nicknamed Vlad the Impaler, whose real surname was Dracul (son of the dragon). He inspired author Bram Stoker to write his 1897 novel Dracula.
Today, most reported cases are due to unintentional injuries from falling on objects, sexual activity, or psychiatric behavior. All of these can lead to rectal perforation.