Doctors at the Katutura Intermediate Hospital in Namibia's capital city, Windhoek, removed a 6cm long knife blade lodged in the head of a 21-year-old student.
Stanza Narib was stabbed with a knife in the head on October 26 but, only realised last week that a broken piece of the blade was left lodged in his head, The Namibian newspaper reported.
Health executive director Ben Nangombe confirmed that the blade had successfully been removed from Narib's head on Sunday.
Narib told the newspaper from his hospital bed that he felt "very relieved and happy" that the blade was finally out of his head.
"I thought it would affect my academics as a student. Although I was very scared, I came out to be a strong being," said the first-year computer science student at the Namibia University of Science and Technology.
He was attacked in October after a wedding party in Katutura. He and a group of friends were driving around and stopped at a shop late in the evening when they were confronted by a group of men who allegedly started an argument.
"They were picking on one of my friends, and I stepped in. This is when one of the guys said they have no problem stabbing me, and then he stabbed me in the head. I did not feel any pain at first, maybe because there was fear. It was quick, and when he took out the knife, we saw it was broken," he explained.
He was taken to a clinic in Katutura, where his wound was cleaned, and he received painkillers before he was sent home.
"There was a cut, but it did not seem deep. I got better, and life went on," he said.
He noticed a protrusion behind his left ear in November, which only hurt when he touched it. He did not know that it was a blade lodged in his head at the time.
He went to the hospital, where the broken blade, about 6cm long, was discovered in his skull after an X-ray scan.
A doctor said the blade was lodged between the skull and skin near the left ear, and close to an artery.
- African News Agency (ANA)
