Man, 27, has a NEEDLE stuck in his HEART after 'a friend inserted it into his chest as a prank when they were out drinking'
- Doctors in China removed the needle from the man's heart in open-chest surgery
- Patient said a friend had inserted the sharp object into him when he was drunk
- Part of the needle had been stuck in a vein, and the rest had poked into his heart
- The 27-year-old's condition is said to be stable and he is recovering in hospital
A man in China has reportedly had an inch-long needle removed from his heart during four-hour open-chest surgery.
The 27-year-old patient, known as Mr Zhu, claimed a friend had inserted the sharp object into his chest as a prank when they were out drinking two months earlier.
Mr Zhu said he was drunk at the time and had not felt unwell until recently.
Surgeons in China have removed an inch-long needle from a 27-year-old man's heart after a friend of his had allegedly poked the sharp object into his body when they were out drinking
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He had to rush to a local hospital earlier this month after suffering from severe chest pain.
Doctors were shocked to find a needle stuck in his heart and the needle would beat whenever his heart beat.
Local medics were not confident to treat the patient and transferred him to the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University in the provincial capital of Nanjing on Sunday.
Upon examination, doctors discovered that part of the needle was stuck in a large vein below the right atrium of Mr Zhu's heart. The rest of the needle was said to have poked into his heart.
The hospital arranged emergency surgery, according a social media statement.
The man, Mr Zhu, was transferred to a hospital in Nanjing on Sunday and underwent surgery
According to surgeons, the needle was a three-centimetre-long (1.1-inch-long) acupuncture needle.
They believed that it was first trapped under the patient's skin and gradually travelled towards his heart.
Mr Zhu told reporters that the needle ended up inside his body when he and his friend went out drinking together on day in February.
'I was drunk. My friend poked a needle into my body,' he said, before adding he hadn't felt any pain.
The man also claimed that he had managed to remove the needle from his skin on his own last month, but decided to insert it back into himself.
He refused to explain why and how he had done so.
Li Xiaobo, a deputy director at the hospital's Cardiovascular Centre, told Jiangsu TV that the needle had poked into the wall of Mr Zhu's heart and as his heart beat, it got stuck deeper and deeper.
A large amount of fluid had accumulated around Mr Zhu's heart and his condition was said to be critical.
Li Xiaobo (pictured), a deputy director at the hospital, told reporters that the needle had poked into the wall of Mr Zhu's heart and as his heart was beating, it got stuck deeper and deeper
Surgeons carried out a cardiopulmonary bypass procedure on Mr Zhu.
In such an operation, the heart and lungs are temporarily stopped and their function taken over by a machine while the surgeon performs the procedure.
Surgeons managed to find the needle after they cut open Mr Zhu's inferior vena cava - a large vein that carries blood from one's lower body to the heart - and extracted part of the blood from the vein.
They also repaired the wall of the vein after discovering that it had been partially damaged by the needle.
Mr Zhu has expressed regret for his behaviour. His condition is said to be stable and he is currently recovering in hospital.
Earlier this year, another man in China's Guangxi Province had a toothpick removed from his heart after allegedly swallowing the sharp object by accident while out drinking a few years earlier.
The 29-year-old patient, known by his surname Zhou, told reporters he had the habit of putting a toothpick in his drinking glass to differentiate it from the others', and he had likely swallowed the toothpick along with the alcohol.
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