German Woman Has Pencil Removed From Head

(AP)  A woman who had a pencil lodged in her head for 55 years after a childhood accident has finally had most of it removed, which should end her chronic headaches and nosebleeds, her doctor said Tuesday.

Margaret Wegner was 4 when she fell while carrying the 3.15-inch pencil, which went through her cheek and into her brain.

"It bored right through the skin and disappeared into my head," Wegner, now 59, told Bild, Germany's best-selling newspaper. "It hurt like crazy."

At the time, the technology did not exist to safely remove the pencil, so Wegner had to live with it — and the ensuing chronic headaches and nosebleeds — for the next 5½ decades.

But on Friday, Dr. Hans Behrbohm, an ear, nose and throat specialist at Berlin's Park-Klinik Weissensee, was able to identify the exact location of the pencil so that he could determine the risks of removing it, and then took most of it out.

The operation was difficult because of the way the pencil had shifted as Wegner grew, Behrbohm told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

"This was something unique because the trauma was so old," said Behrbohm, who has also done brain surgery to remove bullets from shooting victims and glass from people involved in car accidents.

Although a piece of a pencil about four-fifths of an inch long could not be removed, Behrbohm said it does not pose a danger.

Wegner, the wife of German boxing coach Ulli Wegner, will no longer have the headaches and nosebleeds, and her sense of smell should return soon, Behrbohm said.

"She shouldn't suffer any longer," he said.

[extremophil]

Now, if modern medicine can only pull some peoples heads out of their @sses.

[hermit22]

Rush, 55 years is 5 1/2 decades. 4 plus 55 =59.

[rushlimpdrug]

Wow is right! It only took 55 years for socialized medicine to get part of a pencil out of someones head.
Posted by whoamama1

It happened when she was 4. Do the math.
Then get the banana out of your ear.
You have issues.

[susieq_13]

What an interesting story. I'm glad they were able to remove part of the pencil. I can't imagine what that would have been like.

[l8c6]

Wow is right! It only took 55 years for socialized medicine to get part of a pencil out of someones head.
Posted by whoamama1

Now that is one of the most jackassed comments this story could possibly generate for the day. The story answered the question. It wouldn't have been done in the U.S. any sooner. I know of people walking around in the U.S. with bullets imbedded because it's deemed safer at this point to leave them there...probably because the for profit insurance companies don't find them to be pre-approved for removal. Plus the removal is bad for the profits of the insurance business.

[whoamama1]

Wow is right! It only took 55 years for socialized medicine to get part of a pencil out of someones head.

[bkylws]

Wow!