Doctors remove 4cm-long drill from man's beating heart

A drill operator in India had grim chances of survival when he was brought to a New Delhi hospital with a 4cm-long metal piece lodged in his heart. But, doctors at Fortis Hospital in Noida, near New Delhi, defied all odds to keep the 32-year-old man alive and performed a life-or-death a beating heart surgery to extract the metal piece.  
Drill operator, Satish Kumar, was working at a factory when a metal piece snapped off his drill and pierced into his chest, puncturing his heart and narrowly missing the main artery over two weeks ago. By the time he reached hospital, he had lost vast amounts of blood and time, furthering his hopes of survival. Moreover, according to local reports, the metal piece missed one of his coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart, by just a few millimetres.
It is reported by Newsflare, a video news agency, that Kumar's case was turned down by five hospitals before surgeons led by Dr Vaibhav Mishra of Fortis Hospital took up challenge an performed an emergency surgery. "High-speed penetrating injuries of the heart are universally fatal and this was similar to being shot in the heart by a gun," Dr Mishra said, adding, "Fortunately, the metallic fragment also plugged the hole it had created and that stopped the heart from a fatal haemorrhage." 
A 90-second long clip of the incredible surgery shows Kumar's heart beating rapidly as doctors desperately attempt to keep him alive by using forceps to dig into the heart and pull out the metal fragment. They also repaired his left ventricle, one of four vital chambers of the organ, where the metal had lodged itself. Kumar was able to walk and allowed to go home four days after the surgery, according to reports in Daily Mail.
While, Ashleigh Doggett, senior cardiac nurse at British Heart Foundation said, "Beating heart surgery was pioneered in the UK by BHF Professor Gianni Angelini and is now used worldwide. Most forms of heart surgery require the patient's chest to be opened, the heart stopped and an artificial pump to take over the work of their heart during the operation. This can add considerable complications, so by keeping the heart beating and avoiding the pump, there are fewer complications for bypass patients."

• India