Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

NEWSDESK

Albanian unknowingly had bullet in head for 12 years
10 Apr 2009 13:03:33 GMT
 Source: Reuters
TIRANA, April 10 (Reuters) - An Albanian woman went around for 12 years with a bullet lodged below her cheekbone without her noticing it, the woman said on Friday.

Mrike Rrucaj told Reuters she was shot in her sleep in 1997 at a time when the Balkan country was plagued by anarchy and chaos amid protests against fraudulent pyramid schemes, but a doctor said the bullet had passed through her. At the time many Albanians fired bullets into the air in frustration.

"I was covered in blood and I thought I had been killed," Rrucaj said of the incident in 1997. "The doctor at the hospital said the bullet had gone in and come out and he just cleaned the wound. I was 28, and did not feel a thing for 12 years."

But one week ago she collapsed from pain when she bent her neck and an X-ray revealed the bullet, which was 2.8 cm long.

"The unique thing about this case is not the operation, but the fact she kept it unknowingly for 12 years in her head," said Fatos Olldashi, chief neurosurgeon at Albania's military hospital.

He did not blame his colleague for not being more attentive in 1997, when an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 people were killed.

"It is easy to judge the doctor now, but it was quite different back in 1997. He thought it had come out. And they were treating seriously injured people, not someone standing up and talking to them," he said. (Reporting by Benet Koleka, editing by Adam Tanner)


AlertNet news is provided by
Email this article       Send comments

NGO latest

•  SLIDESHOW: New campaign for children affected by HIV and TB
Caritas Internationalis

MORE >>

Latest news

•  Albanian unknowingly had bullet in head for 12 years

•  US/EU: Help Close Guantanamo by Accepting Some Detainees

•  After Balkans duo, NATO enlargement to slow

•  PREVIEW-60 years on, NATO in crisis over Afghan war

•  After Balkans duo, NATO enlargement to slow

MORE >>

AlertNet news is provided by

Background information

Facts & figures
Albania

Related articles

Breaking stories
 Albanian unknowingly had bullet in head for 12 years (1 minute ago)

US/EU: Help Close Guantanamo by Accepting Some Detainees (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
 MEDIAWATCH: Food summit thwarts hope (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
 SLIDESHOW: New campaign for children affected by HIV and TB (1 minute ago)

Blogs
 Website seeks to reunite refugees (1 minute ago)

Maps
 MAP: Global projected land use changes, 1700-2050 (1 minute ago)


Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-04-05T201033Z_01_TIR17D_RTRIDSP_2_ALBANIA-NATO_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/TIR17D.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2009-04-05T200923Z_01_TIR16D_RTRIDSP_2_ALBANIA-NATO_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/TIR16D.htm

Albanians shout pro-NATO slogans during a rally in Tirana April 5, 2009. Albania joined NATO at the alliance's summit on Saturday as full member. REUTERS/Arben Celi (ALBANIA MILITARY POLITICS CONFLICT) ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Fri Apr 10 13:04:53 2009