Three years after the accident: this is what was discovered in the boy's back

An X-ray in Italy revealed a 5.5 cm brake handle that penetrated the back of a 13-year-old boy three years ago in a bicycle fall, and hid near his spine. The object was found after the boy began feeling pain, and was removed in a complex three-hour surgery at the Bambino Gesù hospital in Rome. The boy was released home after a full recovery.

An X-ray taken this week in Italy revealed that a 5.5-centimeter brake handle from a bicycle fall three years ago had penetrated the back of a 13-year-old boy and remained hidden near his spine until it was extracted in a complex surgery. The story began three years ago, when the boy was riding his bicycle and fell in a minor fall. The brake handle of the handlebar broke off and disappeared without anyone noticing, and the object entered through a tiny wound in the flank area and lodged in his body. The boy recovered from the fall, continued to play sports and lead a completely routine life, until recently he began to feel unusual pain in his leg and back area. Initial neurological tests showed nothing, so the doctors decided to perform an X-ray of the spine. The result surprised the medical team: to the left of the vertebrae, deep in the lower back, a curved metal object 5.5 centimeters long was found, identical to the lost brake handle. Following the finding, the boy was transferred to the specialist children's hospital Bambino Gesù in Rome. A CT scan showed that the tip of the object had lodged dangerously between the third and fourth lumbar vertebrae, right next to the opening through which a central nerve root exits. The experts noted that the fact the boy functioned completely normally for three years without serious injury is an unusual event that contradicts medical logic. The boy's body managed to contain the object through a connective tissue envelope that separated it from the surrounding organs. Removing the object required maximum precision from the surgeons. The surgical team made a small incision in the back and had to separate the nerve from the metal handle millimeter by millimeter during a surgery that lasted three hours under careful monitoring of nerve activity. The chief surgeon, Leonardo Uggiano, explained that the main challenge was the location of the component at the point where the nerve exits the spine. The surgery ended in complete success when the team extracted the metal handle intact without damaging the nerve. The head of the orthopedics department, Pier Francesco Costici, noted that this is a unique case in which a child walks around for years with a foreign body in such a sensitive place without developing significant symptoms. One day after the procedure the boy was already able to stand on his feet, and a few days later the doctors released him home after it became clear he had recovered completely with no future damage.