Doctors Stunned: 12cm Wooden Branch Removed from Russian Man's Eye Socket After 18 Months Embedded in Skull
A 12cm wooden branch embedded in a Russian man's eye socket for 18 months was finally discovered through imaging and safely removed via endoscopic surgery, preserving his vision and allowing full recovery.
In 2024, Yuri, a 50-year-old man living in Rylets, a small town in Kursk Oblast, Russia, was trimming maple branches in his backyard when a wood fragment struck his left eye forcefully. Not wearing safety glasses at the time, he immediately felt the impact and experienced sharp pain, but the discomfort gradually subsided, causing him to believe it was only a minor injury.
As time passed, Yuri nearly forgot about the incident, though he continued experiencing intermittent eye pain and irritation in his left eye. Despite multiple visits to eye specialists, doctors could not identify the underlying cause of his chronic eye pain, and treatments proved ineffective.
About three months ago, Yuri's condition deteriorated dramatically. The pain intensified unbearably, and he began experiencing blurred vision in his left eye. Doctors at Kursk Regional Hospital conducted MRI and CT scans, revealing a shocking discovery: a 12-centimeter wooden branch had pierced through his eye socket, penetrated deep into the sinus cavity, and damaged the base of his skull near critical brain structures.
Surgeon teams successfully removed the branch through an endoscopic approach via the nasal cavity without requiring external skull surgery. The procedure went smoothly, and remarkably, Yuri's vision was preserved. He is currently under medical care with an excellent prognosis for complete recovery.
