Margaret Wegner, a German woman, had suffered for years from chronic headaches and worsening nosebleeds. It was all because she had a pencil embedded in her brain for 55 years.
She was 4 years old when she fell with a pencil in her hand.
It pierced my skin and went into my head. It hurt so much.
At the time, the technology needed to remove it without putting her life at risk did not exist, so the doctors decided not to operate, and she learned to live with 8 centimeters of wood and graphite inside her. However, over the years, the decision that had initially been made to save her ended up putting her life in danger.
Until finally, in August 2007, when she was 59, her turn came. Dr. Hans Behrbohm, of the Park-Klinik Weissensee clinic in Berlin, pinpointed the pencil’s location, assessed the risks, and removed most of it. It wasn’t easy: the object had shifted as she grew.
And although a fragment about 2 centimeters long remained inside, the surgeon assured her it posed no danger.
After 55 years, Margaret was free from the pain and, most importantly, regained her sense of smell. An accident that, although it took more than half a century to resolve, ended happily thanks to science.