Pencil Lodged in Girl's Hip for 15 Months

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Milliyet Newspaper, 10 June 2018)


   First pencil, then 15 months later, penicillin. 

In February 2017 in Istanbul, middle school student H.A. (14)
slipped on ice and fell hard on her hip.  Upon arriving home
H.A. noticed only the tip of her pencil but thought nothing of
it.  Nevertheless, a persistent pain in her hip forced her to see
a doctor.  X-rays were taken but nothing turned up so the doctor
told H.A. that the pain would pass in time.

But the pain continued for 15 months so finally, H.A. went to
Cerrahpaşa Hospital, where she was operated on.  The surgeon
found a 10-centimeter pencil in H.A.'s hip that had lodged there
when she slipped on the ice (!).  Surgeon Prof. Dr. Nuri Aydın
noted that "this is the first time in my career I've encountered
such a thing."

Dr. Aydın added that "when we examined the patient we found
nothing to indicate that there was a pencil in her hip, although
she said that the pencil may have entered her hip when she
slipped on the ice.  The X-ray shows metal objects but since this
was a lead pencil is wasn't reflected.  We did an MR and saw a
tumor-like object so that's why we operated. We saw that the
entire pencil had entered her hip. Once extracted the patient
regained her health.  Had there been nerve damage she would
have been paralyzed but that didn't happen."


  H.A. plans to invest in a pencil case henceforth.