My friend’s brother accidentally shot me in the back with a pellet when I was 14. I was sitting on a bench in their backyard, also shooting a pellet gun, and his brother was behind me (like 10-15 yards) and was being a completely stupid 13 year old and shot me in the back … somehow. It wasn’t intentional … just a completely avoidable accident.

This was one of those .177 pointed lead hunting pellets. The pellet struck the left side of my upper back, hitting my shoulder blade and then veered down a bit and came to rest. I’m very thankful it wasn’t a couple inches to the right, as that would have been spinal cord.

Regardless, his mom drove me to the hospital right after it happened (where my parents met me) and they cleaned up and wound and told me how to treat it in the coming days and weeks. As far as removal, the doctors elected to leave it be … as removing it might cause more harm than good, apparently — standard practice back in those days.

It’s never bothered me, but I got to thinking earlier today — “I wonder how that damn pellet it doing.”

It’s lead, which worries me a bit. But hell, it’s been 25 years now. I’ve heard the body basically encapsulates foreign objects over time … does anyone know? I wonder if the pellet could shift and ultimately make it to a place where the metal could get into my bloodstream. I dunno.

I also wonder if leaving pellets / bullets / other foreign objects is still the medical recommendation .. like, if this happened to me today would they still leave it? A lot probably depends on where it’s located too.

I might ask my doctor sometime … get another recommendation. But curious if anyone else here has any foreign objects in their body that doctors elected to leave. Or other thoughts you may have on potential lead poisoning issues.

Stock image of type of pellet I was hit with:



Image of pellet in me — this is from an X-ray, taken in 2011, when they were checking me for pneumonia:

Hmmm... It may be slowly dissolving. When I was in first grade, one of those big pencils rolled down my desk. To keep it from falling, I slammed my legs together to catch it and it was my luck that the point of the pencil stabbed me in the thigh and broke off. Over time, the broken piece slowly dissolved itself. Took about ten years IIRC.

Most likely encased in calcium by now. Unless you had some chronic calcium deficiency, in which case the body would scavenge the calcium (and maybe even the lead, the body can mistake lead for calcium under such conditions).

I have one in my foot and I can't even blame it on some other foolish 13 year old.

Only if you're having an MRI. Even then maybe not if it's really just lead, but be darn sure to advise them and the techs/doc will assess.

quote:

Originally posted by Nuclear:
Most likely encased in calcium by now.

Not seeing it (the calcification) in that 2011 xray. Looks to be floating in the tissue. I'd absolutely want it out personally. A good surgeon could do it with very little impact.

If it’s something you worry about, get a blood test to check for elevated lead. If after all that time lead levels are not elevated, I’d say not to worry about it.

Shot myself in the foot with a .22 while hunting when I was 14. Bullet hit the eyelet in my boot and broke with the larger piece lodging in my foot. (There's a reason not to climb over a fence with a loaded rifle). Anyway, that was 54 years ago. Other than a very cool scar on the top of my foot, no ill effects. (or maybe that's why I am the way I am )

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
get a blood test to check for elevated lead

^^^^ This.

No need to remove it. Very unlikely to have any significant long term effects. Probably more risk involved with removing it rather than leaving it. With that being said, there’s nothing more rewarding than hearing the projectile “clang” into the metal basin. Unfortunately the metal basins are less common but I insist upon having one.

My Pop-pop got shot during a hunting accident before WWII, it was a 30-06 round. It was just in front of his left ear-we used to feel it when I was a kid.

Of course he told us it was from the war. Later I found out that they had all been drinking and a rifle fell while propped against a tree and a bunch of people were around a campfire. The round hit an old car and ricocheted off the car and struck Pop-pop. The towns vet was there and he said to leave it there (in his head). So he had it in his head since around 1940 to his death in 2001.

Of course they would want to remove it these days.
They could charge around 10k or more for the procedure.

Bob

I worked a lot of shooting cases when I was a LEO and doctors that provided care repeatedly told me removal of the bullet(s) (or pellets in the case of shotgun wounds) wouldn't generally be removed unless extraordinary circumstances existed. Most of the time, the projectiles would become "encapsulated" and removal entailed more risk then leaving them in place. Why not ask your own physician if you have any doubt?

Got hit on the elbow with a pellet once when I was grouse hunting with a friend up in Wisconsin. Didn't penetrate the skin but one put a pretty healthy dent into the stock of my Beretta O/U. Damn that stung.

I've got a piece of metal, not sure what kind, stuck in my wrist. Don't have a clue how it got there. Whenever I get an MRI I inform the people doing the work. I've been told to leave it in.

Jim

This dude had the turn signal lever from a '63 Thunderbird embedded in his forearm from a horrific car accident in 1963 until 2014 without ever even knowing it was there.

https://www.usatoday.com/story...emoved-arm/21181305/

It is apparently pretty common for cops and soldiers to end up with bullets or bullet fragments in their bodies that are considered riskier to remove than to just leave in place.

"We gotta get the bullet out!" Major pet peeve of mine about Hollywood writers, still to this day putting it in scripts because they saw it in other old movies. (put there by people who saw it in older movies, and so on and so on)


I have told the story before of a friend who nearly died post MRI, after some shrapnel he'd gotten 30+ years earlier (but didn't know was still in there) moved and nicked an artery.

quote:

Originally posted by Pal:
Don't have a clue how it got there.

Alien implant. Shhhh... don't say it out loud, they'll come back.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Hmmm... It may be slowly dissolving. When I was in first grade, one of those big pencils rolled down my desk. To keep it from falling, I slammed my legs together to catch it and it was my luck that the point of the pencil stabbed me in the thigh and broke off. Over time, the broken piece slowly dissolved itself. Took about ten years IIRC.

I suspect that was probably graphite rather than actual lead. The “lead” in pencils has been graphite for a *long* time. I’m not aware of any actual lead in wooden pencils other than lead based paint until somewhere in the mid 1950s.

quote:

Originally posted by armedmd:
No need to remove it. Very unlikely to have any significant long term effects. Probably more risk involved with removing it rather than leaving it. With that being said, there’s nothing more rewarding than hearing the projectile “clang” into the metal basin. Unfortunately the metal basins are less common but I insist upon having one.

That seems pretty definitive. I would have also guessed that when they saw it in the 2011 x-ray they would have said something if it was dangerous.