Man had knife buried in face for four years - X-ray picture

Mugging victim Mir Li suffered terrible headaches for four years – then doctors discovered a 4in blade buried in his skull.

The X-ray of the knife buried in Mir Li's skull (CEN)

(UK Metro) - Crooks robbed and stabbed 37-year-old Mr Li when he was working as a taxi driver. The knife they used had snapped at the handle and the blade was left embedded – and hidden – between his skull and ear.

Mr Li had no idea that it was there but had complained about splitting headaches for years before visiting specialist medics at the Yuxi People’s Hospital in Yunnan province, south west China.

A spokesman for the hospital said: ‘He came to us with a long history of severe head pain and unexplained bleeding from his ears and mouth. As soon as we scanned him it was obvious what was wrong.

‘What is astonishing is that is was missed four years ago and that he has survived all this time with it in his head. We've seen needles and small objects buried in a skull but never something this size.’

Luo Zhiwei, head of the surgical department at the hospital, had a stab at summing it all up and said that the fact that Mr Li survived and lived a relatively normal life for all this time with the knife buried in his head was a medical miracle.