Yemeni man lives 14 years with bullet in skull, undergoes rare surgery in B'luru

NT Correspondent Bengaluru Abdul (name changed on request), a 34-year-old Yemeni, said he lived for more than 14 years with a bullet embedded deep in his skull base—a stray shot that struck him while he was simply walking down the street, altering the course of his life and causing persistent pain. "But there was nothing he could do because the facilities in war-torn Yemen were far below par. So, he learned to live with pain behind his right eye and frequent attacks of bloody nasal discharge," said his friend and caregiver, who accompanied Abdul to India to get the bullet removed, to PTI. Abdul could speak only Arabic. Abdul's final destination was Bengaluru. "A lot of our friends and acquaintances, who have already been here to undergo complicated medical procedures not available back home in Sanaa, recommended we come to Bengaluru," said the friend. Here, at Aster Whitefield Hospital, through a scarless endoscopic nasal surgery—which the doctors said is a rare and high-risk procedure—the surgeons removed the bullet in a procedure that lasted nearly three hours. Since the bullet was horizontally embedded under the optic nerve and close to the carotid artery—structures essential to vision and brain function—a combination of neurosurgeons and ENT specialists were part of the surgical team, said Dr Swaroop Gopal, Group Director–Aster International Institute of Neurosciences and Spine Care, who led the team. The bullet's location was the key challenge for the surgical team, said Gopal. It was deep within the skull base, invisible externally, and surrounded by critical neurovascular structures. "The bullet's position made both doing nothing and invasive surgery potentially risky," added Gopal. Abdul's friend recalled how every single day of his life Abdul suffered from severe nasal infections because of the deeply embedded bullet. "He was really good at his studies, but he had to stop after his bachelor's degree in Arabic because he couldn't concentrate due to pain," the friend added. "The transnasal procedure gave us access to the skull base with no external incision. With the help of advanced cranial navigation and endoscopic visualisation, we were able to safely extract the bullet with unprecedented precision, subjecting the patient to minimal trauma and facilitating scarless recovery," Hegde added.