# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/21 "2018-02-17T16:06:32Z")
I have some gravel in my left knee that’s been there since I took a fall at a church retreat in 1984. My Dad has shrapnel in his left knee that’s been there since the Vietnam war. Not bullets, but the point remains; at least for a left knee, foreign objects are survivable. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/22 "2018-02-17T16:21:15Z")
As far as the Andrew Jackson story, the Times link includes this: “One lead-poisoning expert, Dr. John F. Rosen, professor of pediatrics at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, who was not involved with the study, said that ‘‘hair lead levels are difficult to interpret’’ and that, contrary to the view of other experts, it is impossible to correlate blood and hair lead levels reliably.” I don’t see where they 1) convincingly established lead as the cause of Jackson’s chronic health problems, or 2) ruled out lead exposure from other sources. I remain doubtful that lead leaching from a single bullet could significantly have a major impact on someone’s health over time. In general, foreign bodies tend to become walled off by granulomatous inflammation and eventually fibrous tissue, with no significant problems in the human body unless in an area critical to functioning or associated with chronic pain. Unless of course the foreign body is something like [this](http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/01/07/terror.poison.bulgarian/). ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/23 "2018-02-17T17:06:46Z")
People were exposed to compounds of lead quite frequently in past ages, and determining where the exposure came from can difficult (e.g. glaze in pottery) ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/24 "2018-02-17T17:18:24Z")
My Dad took a bullet at age 3 (don’t ask - not sad but a long story), carried it with him through WW II, and still had it when he died in 2001. He was shot pre-x-rays and after mangling him a fair bit trying to find it, the doctor at the time just sewed him up and that was that. It never did give him any real issues other than always needing to warn x-ray techs that it was there. For some reason, where it was in his thoracic/abdominal cavity (? - not sure of the proper term) it kind of moved a bit over the years. To hear his doctor describe it — more than a bit. Had there been an autopsy after his death (no need - natural causes) I almost would have requested they try to recover it. I grew up seeing the scar from “the search” that I could hide my 4-year-old hand in and hearing the story of how it came to be and I was always curious to see it other than on the film; to hold it in my hand. Oh well, right conditions and all, maybe some archeologist in the future will come across it. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/25 "2018-02-17T21:01:07Z")
[Mark Seay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Seay) played an entire NFL career and lives on today with a bullet next to his heart. > [@](#): > > Seay accepted a football scholarship at Cal State Long Beach in 1988. That year while attending his sister’s children Halloween party, shots were fired outside the home, compelling him to shield his 2-year-old niece with his body. He resulted injured with a .38-caliber bullet that pierced through his pelvis, kidney and lung, stopping near his heart (where the bullet still remains). He was hospitalized for 2 1/2 weeks, lost a kidney and spent two months eating only soup, while keeping strict bed rest. ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2018, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/26 "2018-02-17T21:03:15Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Which is what lead to Roosevelt opting not to have the bullet removed after his assassination attempt. Plus the fact that Roosevelt was a badass whose life may have been saved by the 50 page speech in his pocket, that he still delivered with the bullet in his body. Bad. Ass. Potential complications of leaving a bullet in the body: May cause trouble with metal detectors and MRI machines. May lead to technology-enhanced superheroism. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/27 "2018-02-19T05:34:52Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > You mean a gunshot wound is not fixed with a bandage as long as it gets you in the shoulder? :dubious: If the bandage is made from an artfully torn t-shirt or mini-skirt worn by the heroine, it’s basically magic medicine that can fix anything. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/28 "2018-02-19T08:09:01Z")
Harmless gunshot flesh wounds remind me of 80s/Arnold movies. So I can’t read the thread title without hearing “no problemo” in the T-800’s voice. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/29 "2018-02-19T08:43:32Z")
I have a metal plate in my head from age 6, sometimes it gives me a headache just remembering it. Just kidding, never been a problem. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/30 "2018-02-19T09:10:51Z")
Unlike the Hollywood portrayal (except maybe George Clooney’s talk to his men in Three Kings), the bullet being in your body is not the problem. It’s been sterilized in the barrel and from its flight through the atmosphere. Nor, strictly speaking, is the fact that it put a hole in you. I mean other than the fact that the hole might also have passed through vital organs and severed blood vessels. From what I’ve read, doctors will typically NOT close up the hole so that it can heal from the inside - out. The problem is from the bullet’s trip into you where it can rupture organs, shatter bone and sever blood vessels, all potentially causing a rapid death or crippling injury. Assuming you survive that, there is the potential risk of death from infection. Not from the bullet itself, but from bile, fecal matter or other bodily fluids being where they shouldn’t or just general infections people get from an exposed wound. Maybe also from bits of debris pulled into the wound by the bullet. I’m not sure about that part. Longer term, you may have to deal with the loss of functionality in any organs that were damaged by the bullet. Or maybe Hollywood is right and all you need to do is dig out the bullet and close up the hole with something and you’ll be ready to kick ass again in a few minutes. > [@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. And by “surgery” do you mean taking gunpowder from another bullet, putting it in the hole and lighting it on fire to cauterize the wound? In severe cases, using a syringe (or pen or other implement) to remove excess air from the chest cavity? > [@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. Yikes. It must be difficult going through life with a car door embedded in you! ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/31 "2018-02-19T16:26:02Z")
And when someone asks him for a jar of something. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/32 "2018-02-19T16:50:51Z")
Nah, the real reason Teddy didn’t have the bullet removed is that, if they had tried, his body would have forced it out so violently that it would have ended up shooting one of the doctors, a fate that was only prevented by the intervening invulnerable barrier of Roosevelt flesh. Totally true fact that I just made up. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/33 "2018-02-19T17:21:37Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Assuming you survive that, there is the potential risk of death from infection. Not from the bullet itself, but from bile, fecal matter or other bodily fluids being where they shouldn’t or just general infections people get from an exposed wound. Maybe also from bits of debris pulled into the wound by the bullet. I’m not sure about that part. Both Garfield and McKinley died mainly because of the infection produced by their wounds, rather than the damage done by the bullet itself. In Garfield’s case in particular the repeated probing of his wound by doctors with unsterilized fingers and instruments as they searched for the bullet helped promote the infection that killed him. He might have done better if they had just patched him up and never tried to find the bullet. ---
**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 19, 2018, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/34 "2018-02-19T21:19:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Nah, the real reason Teddy didn’t have the bullet removed is that, if they had tried, his body would have forced it out so violently that it would have ended up shooting one of the doctors, a fate that was only prevented by the intervening invulnerable barrier of Roosevelt flesh. Totally true fact that I just made up. The truthiness of your fact is very high on the truthiness scale. As bad asses go Chuck acknowledges Teddy’s superiority and only Old Hickory was actually as tough and he was a total ass beside a bad ass. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/35 "2018-02-19T23:00:41Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > . > And by “surgery” do you mean taking gunpowder from another bullet, putting it in the hole and lighting it on fire to cauterize the wound? In severe cases, using a syringe (or pen or other implement) to remove excess air from the chest cavity? LOLOL. Well. As a retired E.M.T. I can deal in facts and not hyperbole. I know nothing of cauterizing wounds that way. I can state as a fact that New York state the EMT training includes emergency field treatment for a sucking chest wound that includes use of a needle, and I can inform that I know how to do an emergency tracheotomy in the street using a hard piece of tubing or ballpoint pen. Not made up. Just the facts. Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2018, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/36 "2018-02-19T23:17:42Z")
> [@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. Indeed. [Here’s a fascinating article by Ronald Reagan’s physician on how he would have treated Presidential shootings in the past.](http://www.americanheritage.com/content/assassination-medicine) Note, in the Garfield section, he says he probably wouldn’t have removed the bullet because its location (back muscle) posed no imminent threat–and using surgery and anesthesia would be more risky than the bullet itself. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/37 "2018-02-20T16:29:22Z")
> [@](#): > > Both Garfield and McKinley died mainly because of the infection produced by their wounds, rather than the damage done by the bullet itself. In Garfield’s case in particular the repeated probing of his wound by doctors with unsterilized fingers and instruments as they searched for the bullet helped promote the infection that killed him. He might have done better if they had just patched him up and never tried to find the bullet. And there were thousands of Civil War veterans with bullets and shrapnel lodged in their bodies alive at that time, so they should have known better. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/38 "2018-02-20T17:10:16Z")
It’s really annoying how many otherwise fine movies are damaged by the “must remove bullet” trope. Doubly so because, as noted, they amateur surgeons never repair the real damage (sew up blood vessels, replace lost blood, whatever) once the bullet has plinked into the dish. To really make you mad, go read “[Destiny of the Republic](https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Republic-Madness-Medicine-President/dp/0767929713/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519146325&sr=1-1&keywords=destiny+of+the+republic)”. I want to invent a time machine just to go back and beat those “doctors” with a club. European doctors knew about germs and the need for cleanliness while operating, but the American doctors knew better! They weren’t going to let any quiche-eating eurotrash folk tell THEM how to practice medicine! They knew washing hands and tools made things worse. A doctor who was clean and not covered with blood and guts obviously wasn’t much of a doctor. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/39 "2018-02-20T17:24:35Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Unlike the Hollywood portrayal (except maybe George Clooney’s talk to his men in Three Kings), the bullet being in your body is not the problem. It’s been sterilized in the barrel and from its flight through the atmosphere. The rear of the bullet is briefly exposed to the searing heat of the propellant, but do the sides of the bullet make firm enough contact with the gun barrel to be reliably stripped of microbes? And does the atmosphere (moving past at several hundred m/s) really strip the front of the bullet clean as well? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2018, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957/40 "2018-02-20T17:31:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Nah, the real reason Teddy didn’t have the bullet removed is that, if they had tried, his body would have forced it out so violently that it would have ended up shooting one of the doctors, a fate that was only prevented by the intervening invulnerable barrier of Roosevelt flesh. Totally true fact that I just made up. I heard the bullet never gave Teddy any trouble because it instantly recognized his superior lethality and fell in love with him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bullet-can-stay-lodged-in-someones-body-like-forever-and-no-problemo/808957.md?page=3)