A 65-year-old woman has cheated death after being impaled by a near-two-foot-long metal rod.
The rusty rod was sticking out of the ground in a pasture in India where the woman was tending to her cows when she was thrown off her feet and fell directly on top of it, backside-first.
It entered through her rectum, perforating it, and extended into the space behind the peritoneum, the lining that covers the abdominal organs.
The rod miraculously avoided damage to her blood vessels and organs, according to a medical report about her case.
But she needed antibiotics and a tetanus shot to prevent infection because the rod was rusted and covered with mud and cow manure.
The CT scan shows that the rusty metal rod bypassed crucial blood vessels and organs, miraculously leaving no severe damage
She underwent a two-hour surgery to remove the rod by sliding it out of her through the rectum, and the perforation there was repaired.
Doctors in Manipal, India said the woman was a rare case of impalement through the bottom, made even rarer by the fact that it left no severe, lasting damage.
According to the patient: ‘We have a wide field near our house, and we plant these iron rods on the ground to support the creepers.
'That day when I went out, it was still dark and raining. I took my cow out for grazing, and I had wrapped the rope around my wrist.
‘I don't know why that cow got agitated and it started pulling me with force. Me being an old lady, I lost my balance and sat on my buttocks right on top of one of those rods. It happened all of sudden, and It didn't give me time to realise.’
Screaming in pain and unable to walk, her family and a neighbor rushed into the field to try to help her, but they couldn’t do much.
The rod measured more than 19 inches and entered the woman's body when she fell on top of it while tending to her cows in a pasture
A neighbor drove her to a local health center where an attending physician immediately called for an ambulance to take her to a better-equipped hospital.
She added: ‘I was very scared when they said I need an immediate major surgery to remove that rod and they told me that I may have a stoma [an opening in the abdomen that allows waste to leave the body].
‘I was very shocked and disturbed when they said that my faecal matter will come out through my tummy. Once they explained to me that it will be a temporary thing to save my life and made me realise that the operation was necessary.’
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After the procedure, she had some nausea and abdominal pain, and couldn’t walk. But after a few days she regained her mobility and her pain went away.
Overall, her recovery took about 10 days and she was able to go home in relatively good health.
The patient said: ‘After the reversal surgery now, I feel much better. I am grateful to all the doctors and nurses who took such good care of me.’
The case study was published in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports.
The most notable instance of impalement in history was the vicious Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (modern-day Romania), who sought to consolidate his power by gathering hunderds of noblemen at banquet.
But it became an intensely bloody affair, as the attendants were stabbed and their still-alive bodies impaled.
He earned the nickname Vlad the impaler, whose true last name was Dracul (son of the dragon). He famously inspired author Bram Stoker to write his novel Dracula in 1897.
In modern times, most reported cases involve accidental injuries from falling on objects, sexual activities, or psychiatric behaviors, all of which can lead to rectal perforation.