He was walking barefoot through his own home, as on any other night, when his foot encountered something that should not have been there: a miniature Eiffel Tower he kept as part of his collection of travel souvenirs.
The metal tip pierced the sole of his foot with such force that two-thirds of the structure became embedded in the flesh, leaving only the tower’s four legs sticking out. At the hospital, the X-ray confirmed what the pain had already indicated: the model had reached almost to the bone.
The image spread in 2020 through the Twitter account @TheMedicaIVideo, which specializes in medical cases, and made its way through media outlets in Hong Kong and Taiwan within days. Thousands of people reacted with both empathetic pain and jokes about reaching Paris in a single step. No one imagined that a desk ornament could become such a sharp object.
