# A bullet can stay lodged in someone's body like forever and no problemo? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 16, 2018, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957 "2018-02-16T21:10:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/1 "2018-02-16T21:10:58Z")
A New York Yankee minor leaguer who lives in Venezuela, Thairo Estrada, was shot in the hip during a botched robbery attempt in his home country. According to the New York Post, the bullet remains lodged in his hip and there are no plans to remove it. In fact, he has started rehab and exercising with the bullet still there. Could it remain there forever? Not understanding this. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/2 "2018-02-16T21:13:40Z")
> [@](#): > > Could it remain there forever? Well, after he dies and and his skeleton completely erodes, probably not. If your asking if a foreign body can remain in the body without any adverse effects leading to death, sure. You probably have some in your teeth. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/3 "2018-02-16T21:24:53Z")
Sometimes the surgery removing foreign material causes more harm than leaving it there. It doesn’t mean there will be no problems. It’s just the best choice they can make. If at a later date it proves to be an issue they’d address it then. I’ve known a number of people who have had various life events leaving them with chucks of metal in them. They function just fine. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/4 "2018-02-16T21:29:13Z")
I have a small piece of gravel embedded in my left palm. Has been there for 39 years. It occasionally hits a nerve when I grip something hard in a particular way, but other than that it causes no issueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/5 "2018-02-16T21:32:07Z")
Most people have some small foreign bodies stuck under their skin somewhere. Perhaps nothing as big as a bullet, but a lot of gunshot victims will end up with a bullet permanently lodged in them instead of removed. Sometimes the procedure to remove it will be riskier than just leaving it there. Other times it may be impossible to remove it without doing severe damage to surrounding tissue. Your body is actually fairly good about healing around and isolating solid foreign objects. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/6 "2018-02-16T21:58:42Z")
“Have to remove the bullet” is Hollywood fiction. The lead involved, even if an unjacketed bullet, is likely inert. More damage can be done by digging around. ---
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/7 "2018-02-16T22:00:08Z")
Thanks to all who contributed to increasing my knowledge in this thread ---
**Author:** ![busterpickle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/8 "2018-02-16T22:14:44Z")
Depends it seems. If the bullet is lodged and hasn’t caused any bone fractures than it seems to not be as much of an issue. Whereas bone fracture in combination with a lead bullet can lead to increased lead levels. > **[The effects of retained lead bullets on body lead burden - PubMed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11371848/)** > > We encountered evidence suggesting that the amount of blood lead increase in time after injury is also dependent on the tibia lead concentration. There were too few cases in the study to fully test the effects of bullet location, or the interaction... > **[Elevation of blood lead levels in emergency department patients with...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15706190/)** > > Patients with EARMs have significantly elevated blood lead levels compared with matched controls. The occurrence of a bony fracture within the past 30 days is associated with a higher lead level. In 96% of patients with EARMs, elevated lead levels... > **[Change in blood lead concentration up to 1 year after a gunshot wound with a...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15033646/)** > > The authors studied the time course and prevalence of elevated blood lead concentrations and associated injury- and patient-specific factors during the first year following gunshot injury. They determined blood lead levels at mean time points of 0.3,... > **[Elevated blood lead resulting from maxillofacial gunshot injuries with lead...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12730839/)** > > Ingestion of lead fragments can result from gunshot injuries to the maxillofacial region and may substantially contribute to a rapid increase in blood lead level. Prompt diagnosis and elimination of ingested lead fragments are essential steps... > **[Skeletal sarcoma on the site of retained war bullet fragments and a...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25207300/)** > > Long-term complications of retained war fragments in the body are not completely known. Also, bullet migration and slow resorption of metals and distortion in some imaging modalities are frequent and well recognized complications but, now we are... > **[Retained bullet removal in civilian pelvis and extremity gunshot injuries: a...](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23982410/)** > > The evidence base for making clinical recommendations on the topic of bullet and bullet fragment removal after gunshot injury is weak. Level I and II evidence is needed to determine the indications for bullet removal after gunshot injury. Many factors it seems. ---
**Author:** ![pendgwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/9 "2018-02-16T22:20:10Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > “Have to remove the bullet” is Hollywood fiction. The lead involved, even if an unjacketed bullet, is likely inert. More damage can be done by digging around. Yeah, I blame Hollywood for this popular misconception. I’ve seen assorted movies and TV episodes where someone is threatening to die after being shot and the act of removing the bullet (usually with a shot of bullet going “clink” onto a metal tray) magically makes them recover. Surgery after a gunshot wound is done to fix the holes that the bullet put in various structures, not to recover the bullet. That said, occasionally the bullet does cause problems later. When I was a resident I saw a patient in clinic who had been shot at some point in the past and the bullet had migrated slightly so that it was sitting just under the skin where it caused a bump that was rubbing against his clothes. A little local anesthesia, a small incision and we removed the bullet during the clinic appointment. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/10 "2018-02-16T22:21:51Z")
My Father-in-Law had shrapnel in his nose from the invasion of Holland. He died only 3 years ago, and it caused him no problem, and so it was left to be. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/11 "2018-02-16T22:41:02Z")
On the other hand: > [@](#): > > Andrew Jackson survived the War of 1812 and Indian campaigns only to be felled by his own physicians – or at least that is what many historians have long believed. The seventh President’s doctors, they argue, subjected him to decades of poor health, and may even have hastened his death, by overdosing him with the mercury-containing medications of his time. > > But scientists analyzing two snippets of Jackson’s hair have now come up with evidence that gets his doctors off the hook. The findings, being reported in today’s issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, rule out mercury as the cause of his chronic health problems and suggest that\*\* they were instead brought on partly by lead poisoning from a bullet that lodged in his left shoulder in an 1813 gunfight and stayed there for almost 20 years\*\*. > **[A President's Doctors Are Finally Exonerated (Published 1999)](https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/11/us/a-president-s-doctors-are-finally-exonerated.html)** > > Analysis of snippets of Pres Andrew Jackson's hair seems to clear his doctors of blame for his decades of poor health; it has long been thought that mercury-containing medications given Jackson may have hastened his death in 1845, eight years after... ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/12 "2018-02-16T23:09:55Z")
> [@pendgwen](#): > > Yeah, I blame Hollywood for this popular misconception. I’ve seen assorted movies and TV episodes where someone is threatening to die after being shot and the act of removing the bullet (usually with a shot of bullet going “clink” onto a metal tray) magically makes them recover. Surgery after a gunshot wound is done to fix the holes that the bullet put in various structures, not to recover the bullet. > > That said, occasionally the bullet does cause problems later. When I was a resident I saw a patient in clinic who had been shot at some point in the past and the bullet had migrated slightly so that it was sitting just under the skin where it caused a bump that was rubbing against his clothes. A little local anesthesia, a small incision and we removed the bullet during the clinic appointment. You mean a gunshot wound is not fixed with a bandage as long as it gets you in the shoulder? :dubious: Right, it will be removed if it is safe to do so. Any potential migration of shrapnel might be a concern later on and might be monitored. ---
**Author:** ![pendgwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/13 "2018-02-16T23:34:44Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > You mean a gunshot wound is not fixed with a bandage as long as it gets you in the shoulder? :dubious: Depends - where in the shoulder? 🙂 I’ve seen gunshots to the shoulder that hit nothing but muscle and were literally discharged with a band-aid over the wound. But if the bullet shattered the shoulder joint you better hope the orthopedic surgeon on call is good at jigsaw puzzles. ---
**Author:** ![Onthefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9de053/32.png) [@Onthefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onthefly)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2018, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/14 "2018-02-16T23:55:27Z")
My dad had shrapnel in his leg from October 1944 until his death in 2013. When he was about 85, he told me he was now officially an old man. I asked what he meant. He said that when he was wounded, he asked a doctor if the shrapnel in his leg would cause any problems. “Not until you are an old, old man,” was the doctor’s reply. My dad then said it hurts now so I must be an old man. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/15 "2018-02-17T00:13:06Z")
Many have carried bullets in them for a very long time. Teddy Roosevelt did from 1912 til his death in 1919. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/16 "2018-02-17T03:10:24Z")
Shrapnel is different from bullets though–it’s generally a sharp piece of metal which has more potential to “migrate” than the typical bullet, which I believe ends up as a sort of lump. Obviously bullets can migrate too as noted above. IANA shrapnel, bullet, or medical expert. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/17 "2018-02-17T03:42:37Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > “Have to remove the bullet” is Hollywood fiction. The lead involved, even if an unjacketed bullet, is likely inert. More damage can be done by digging around. Considering the concept killed James Garfield in 1881, it hardly originated in Hollywood. The bullet that hit him would have been fine left alone, but the attempts to find it (including sticking dirty fingers into the wound) let to the infection that killed him. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/18 "2018-02-17T04:02:16Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Considering the concept killed James Garfield in 1881, it hardly originated in Hollywood. > > The bullet that hit him would have been fine left alone, but the attempts to find it (including sticking dirty fingers into the wound) let to the infection that killed him. Which is what lead to Roosevelt opting not to have the bullet removed after his assassination attempt. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/19 "2018-02-17T04:33:06Z")
When I was a teenager I was in a car accident. A part of the diver’s door went into my side leaving a wound with lots of paint and glass in it. At the hospital they spent some time cleaning it out but, for many years afterwards, I would get an occasional “pimple” in the area that would contain a tiny sliver of glass or grey paint. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/20 "2018-02-17T05:09:25Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Considering the concept killed James Garfield in 1881, it hardly originated in Hollywood. > > The bullet that hit him would have been fine left alone, but the attempts to find it (including sticking dirty fingers into the wound) let to the infection that killed him. Err, isn’t that the exact opposite of the Hollywood concept? > [@Guinastasia](#): > > Which is what lead to Roosevelt opting not to have the bullet removed after his assassination attempt. That and he was a mothafuckin’ Bull Moose! > [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > When I was a teenager I was in a car accident. A part of the diver’s door went into my side leaving a wound with lots of paint and glass in it. At the hospital they spent some time cleaning it out but, for many years afterwards, I would get an occasional “pimple” in the area that would contain a tiny sliver of glass or grey paint. > **[Driver finds car part embedded in arm 51 years after road accident](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11322235/Driver-finds-car-part-embedded-in-arm-51-years-after-road-accident.html)** > > Surgeons remove signal lever more than 10 years after Missouri man sets off court’s metal detector [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957.md?page=2)