Mumbai, May 25: Doctors at the state-run JJ Hospital in Byculla, Mumbai, successfully removed a 13 cm iron rod from a 25-year-old labourer's right eye. The labourer was admitted to the hospital on May 19 with the rod penetrating his right eye and a dangerously low heart rate. As his heart rate continued to drop, doctors were left concerned about an imminent cardiac arrest and took him to surgery that lasted three long hours.

According to a report by the Times of India, the surgery was a complex procedure involving a team of specialists from the ENT, ophthalmology, plastic surgery, and anaesthesiology departments. The iron rod had entered at an angle and was lodged perilously close to the carotid artery, the major blood vessel supplying blood to the brain. Had the object penetrated straight through the eye, the consequences could have been fatal, hospital officials said. Mumbai: Cancer Patient and 14-Year-Old Girl With Kidney Disease Tested Positive for COVID-19 Posthumously, Says Report.

ENT surgeon Dr Sunita Bage, who performed the surgery, told TOI that the rod appeared almost cemented to the surrounding tissues, adding to the challenge. The medical team used an endoscopic approach involving orbital decompression and intranasal removal to extract the foreign body carefully. After three hours of meticulous work, they successfully removed the rod with minimal damage to the labourer’s face and eye structures. Bomb Threat to Tata Memorial Hospital: Mumbai’s Premier Cancer Centre Receives Hoax Bomb Threat via Email.

Post-surgery, the patient was transferred to the critical care unit, where his vision was tested. Doctors were relieved to find that he could accurately identify colours and hand movements from a distance, indicating that his eyesight remained intact. The team had initially feared that the proximity of the rod to the brain could have caused paralysis or other neurological damage. The labourer is now recovering well and is expected to be discharged soon.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 25, 2025 10:53 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).