Woman, 24, is accidentally shot in the clitoris by stray bullet while sitting in her living room

Health
By Liam

Woman, 24, is accidentally shot in the clitoris by a stray bullet while sitting in her living room

  • The unidentified 24-year-old woman sustained the injury while sitting at home
  • CT scans revealed the 2cm bullet lodged in her clitoris

By Emily Stearn, health reporter for Mailonline

Updated:

A woman had to remove a stray bullet from her clitoris after being accidentally shot.

The 24-year-old, from Somalia, was rushed to hospital in severe pain after the 2cm bullet passed through her ceiling as she sat in her living room.

The woman, who was not named, had sustained the injury an hour earlier.

CT scans revealed that the bullet lodged in her clitoris after being shot in her vulva, meaning she needed surgery to have it removed safely.

Publishing gruesome images of her injury in the Case Reports from the International Journal of Surgerydoctors said they believe the case is the first of its kind.

The unidentified 24-year-old was rushed to hospital in severe pain after the 2cm bullet passed through her ceiling as she sat down

“To our knowledge, this case is unique in that the bullet is retained in the clitoris,” they added.

The date of the incident was not revealed in the case report by medics at Erdoğan Hospital in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.

On arrival at the hospital, the woman told the obstetrics and gynecology team that she had been sitting in her living room when the stray bullet fell through the ceiling.

No other details about the incident were given.

What is a stray bullet injury?

Fatigue bullet injuries often occur when a bullet is fired into the air and it loses its energy and falls.

Free-falling bullet injuries – or fatigued bullets – often result from uncontrolled use of firearms. In some countries it has become a tradition to fire weapons during celebrations or festivals.

There is a limited number of studies on this type of falling bullets and their effects.

But according to the team of medics at Erdoğan Hospital, the severity of gunshot wounds is determined by the amount of kinetic energy transferred by the bullet once fired.

Pelvic examination showed where the bullet had entered the clitoris, while CT scans confirmed the bullet’s placement.

Under local anesthesia, doctors then removed the bullet from the clitoris.

No complications were observed after surgical removal.

The woman was discharged home the next day ‘in good condition’, doctors said.

Follow-up appointments a month later revealed there had been no further complications either.

According to the medics, non-obstetric vulvar trauma – when the vulva sustains physical injury when not pregnant – is an extremely rare occurrence.

Typically, the cause of non-obstetric vulvar trauma includes sports-related injuries and straddle injuries, such as falling while straddling a fence or bicycle crossbar.

Gunshot wounds to the vulva are extremely rare.

Surgery to remove an object from the vulva requires extra care not to damage the urethra and pelvic area, the doctors said.

Stray bullet injuries — which occur when a bullet is shot into the air and loses its energy and falls — are common in “residential areas in war-torn countries, such as Somalia.”

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