Man with Metal Rod Pierced Into His Skull and Brain Survives Death from Traumatic Brain Injury

A man from Portugal with a metal road pierced in to his head survived with only minimal injuries, according to a new case report.

Metal Rod Enters Head

(Photo : Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

The case was published in the journal BMJ Case Reports, which depicted how the man in his 40s survived the ordeal.

The case report revealed that the man was immediately admitted to the emergency room of Coimbra Hospital and University Centre, following a "transorbital intracranial penetrating injury."

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Brain's Frontal Lobe

The metal entered the man's brain from the bottom of the frontal lobe and advanced further into the temporal lobe, according to Stephanie J. Forkel, a neuroscientist with the Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands, who told Newsweek.

Forkel explained that the temporal lobe is important for emotions, language, memory, and visual processing but it all depends on which part of the lobe was disconnected and the amount of it.

In addition, the patient behind the BMJ Case Reports suffered from the blunt object but it was placed laterally, sparing the neural network's region responsible for memory and emotions, the neuroscientist added.

The report's authors also confirmed this is the case since the metal was pierced in front of the temporal lobe and visual processing should remain intact.

However, the patient's injury may have temporarily affected his language abilities, Forkel added.

How Did He Survived?

Several questions have emerged with regard to the incident, especially if how the man survived even if a long, hard metal is plunged into his skull and brain.

Based on the said case report, the authors explained the patient was apparently luck since the metal rod missed any vital parts of his brain, including crucial blood vessels.

Tony Rao, a visiting researchers at King's College, London, told Newsweek that the diameter and curvature of the rod that entered the skull, along with the point of entry, are all factors to lead into a lucky escape for the patient, who survived with only few complications. 

Related Incident

While a metal rod being found inside the skull of a person is rare, there are related cases where foreign metallic objects are pierced inside the skull and brain of humans do occur.

For instance, bullet penetrations or wounds in the head result in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and even death.

In the United States, gunshot wounds to the head have become the leading cause of TBI in many urban areas, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), which said that surgical treatment can be a solution for such cases as long as blood pressure and oxygenation can be maintained.

In 2019, a team of neurosurgeons performed the unthinkable when they removed an iron rod pierced through the entire head of a man in India.

The man, a construction worker, was at a construction site when he fell down a well and the rod pierced to his head.

The worker survived the incident and operation with only minimal complications.

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