Man who'd suffered from headaches discovered he had rusty knife in head for four years

A man took the term 'sharp pain' very literally after surgeons discovered a knife in his head.

Li Fuyan from China had been suffering with headaches for four years, but never found out why until he finally visited the doctors.

Other symptoms included bad breath and breathing difficulties, and when he went under the knife (pun intended) surgeons were shocked to find a rusty blade in the 30-year-old's head.

Following the discovery, Li disclosed that he'd been stabbed in the lower right jaw four years prior.

The blade then broke off into his skull - but no one realised.

Caters News Agency

Over the years, the four-inch blade had rusted and surgeons said it was a 'miracle' that Li hadn't become seriously ill as a result.

"We checked his mouth, but no wound or scar has been found. It is very strange as to how the blade got into his head," Xu Wen, deputy director of the hospital's stomatology department, told Chinese state broadcaster CCTV in 2011.

Doubling down on the miraculousness of the ordeal, the knife was found sitting behind the man's throat, meaning it had missed the carotid artery and other key structures.

"There are planes and spaces between important organs. That's how one does surgery — you dissect in those planes, move the trachea one way, the esophagus the other," Dr. Eugene Flamm, chairman of neurosurgery at New York's Montefiore Medical Centers said.

"Maybe out of sheer luck this knife passed through."

Surgeons worked cautiously to remove the blade without shattering it.

Apparently the procedure went successfully.

Caters News Agency

The story has gone viral online in recent days and, understandably, people are confused as to how the man didn't know he had a knife in his head for four years.

One person questioned: "How can you be stabbed by that knife and completely forget about it!?"

"Oh yea, f**k, haha - I think, maybe I did, get STABBED IN THE FKN FACE that one day 4 years ago?" quipped another.

"How do you get stabbed in the face and be like 'yeah I’m good' and let that go on for years?!" said a third.

Meanwhile, dozens of others said it was a 'miracle' that he survived.

With the uniqueness of the situation in mind, some X-users have questioned if it's true or not.

One wrote: "Something about this story isn't adding up. He said he was robbed 4 yrs ago. But on that day he was robbed and stab, you expect me to believe he didn't notice any pain from the stab. Idk how but this got me stumped."

"This doesn't make sense," insisted another.

Now that's what you call a stabbing headache.