Surgeons don body armor to remove explosives from soldier's head

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the_crusader

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A SOLDIER underwent a five-hour brain op to remove a high-explosive bullet - which could have blown his head off at any moment.

Army surgeons donned BODY ARMOUR after the Afghan man was rushed in following a bomb blast.

Non-essential staff were evacuated when a scan on what was thought to be just shrapnel revealed it to be a 2½in incendiary round.

The Taliban bullet, containing 2oz of high explosives. was powerful enough to have killed the entire surgical team. But the brave US medics succeeded in delicately extracting it during the marathon operation at Bagram air base, Afghanistan.

Their unnamed patient - a member of the Afghan National Army - suffered serious brain injury but was recovering last night.

Relieved Sgt William Carter, a member of the surgical team, admitted: "It was a real concentrated effort on everyone's behalf to ensure that we were all safe - and the patient was safe as well."

Radiologist Lt Col Anthony Terreri, whose scan revealed the bullet, said: "Initially I thought it was a spent end of some sort of larger round. Then I saw that it was not solid metal on the inside."

The military hospital went into immediate lockdown and bomb disposal experts were called.

After the op the bullet was taken away to be destroyed.

It is the first time such daring surgery has been carried out since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001.

In half a century US medical teams have tackled fewer than 50 cases involving the removal of deadly explosives from patients.

Sgt Carter said: "This type of situation is remarkable

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...ullet-out-of-soldiers-head.html#ixzz0kbVQS4dX
 
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