Man Survives Two Days with Crossbow Bolt Stuck in His Brain

Original article on OddityCentral.com – a blog on oddities and wacky news http://www.odditycentral.com/ A 64-year-old Italian man was found conscious in his bed two days after shooting himself in the head with a crossbow from very close range.

The unidentified Ancona resident, a known crossbow enthusiast, was found in his home by local police (carabinieri) following an emergency services phone call from a concerned family member. After forcing open the man’s door, the carabinieri found him lying in bed with the end of a crossbow bolt sticking out of his forehead. He was immediately transported to the local hospital, conscious, with his eyes open. According to the doctors’ report, he ‘babbled incoherently, but could still speak,” despite his serious injury. The bolt prevented him from turning his head, and hospital staff learned that he had not eaten or drunk anything in two days, ever since the crossbow incident.

Photo: Umer Saud

I’ve never seen anything like it! A millimeter further and the patient would have died instantly,” the head of Neurosurgery at the Torrette hospital in Ancona, Maurizio Iacoangeli, told the Corriere Della Sera. “The arrow passed through his skull from forehead to nape. He was lucky. I’ve never seen anything like it in Italy.”

Luckily, the material out of which the crossbow was made (carbon) allowed doctors to conduct a CT scan that proved crucial to performing life-saving surgery on the patient. “Because it’s not so much about removing it, but rather removing it without causing massive bleeding. The arrow acts like a plug. If you remove it, you run the risk of hemorrhage,” Dr. Iacoangeli explained.

According to Italian news sources, the 64-year-old man was operated on using military techniques learned from Rocco Armonda, a US Army neurosurgeon with experience in various war scenarios, including Iraq, Iran, and recently Ukraine. The procedure was conducted successfully, but the patient’s condition remains serious, and the prognosis is guarded.

Regarding the nature of the injury, investigators are currently considering both the hypothesis of an accident, considering the man’s love of crossbows, as well as the possibility of a self-harming gesture, although he has no history of mental illnesses or psychiatric treatment.

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