An Indian lived with a bullet lodged in his heart for two months until he went through a successful surgery at SAL Hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on Tuesday.
Doctors at SAL removed a .20 calibre bullet lodged in 32-year-old Bharat Sharma's heart muscle near the apex of the left ventricle. The doctors who operated Sharma said that the bullet was moving with every heart beat through the muscle.
"The bullet was critically placed. It was just a millimetre away from puncturing the left heart chamber which would have killed him. It is very rare that a bullet is so close and the person does not die. Providence too had a role in his survival," The Times of India quoted cardiac surgeon Dr Anil Jain as saying.
"With every heart beat, the bullet was pushing into the heart muscle. It would have fatally ruptured the ventricle if not removed in the nick of time," he added.
Sharma was shot in his heart and waist, on 22 July, by the thieves who tried to attempt robbery at his bank in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. The one that hit his waist was removed after he was admitted to the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Aligarh.
However, doctors refused to remove the bullet in his heart, fearing that he will die during the operation and referred him to Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital, where too, doctors refused to operate his heart.
Two months later, a team of five doctors at SAL took his case and successfully operated Sharma, who is now in Intensive Care Unit, recovering slowly.
"I am relieved that my brother has got a new life. I am thankful to the doctors for accepting our case and giving him his life back," Sharma's brother Manish said.
