Breast Implants Save Woman's Life by Deflecting Bullet Away From Her Heart

Her breast implants saved her life from a possibly fatal gunshot.
Derya Ozdemir

A bizarre case of a woman's breast implants saving her life by stopping a bullet headed straight to her heart has been reported by doctors in Canada, which is believed to be the first of its kind.

The horrific accident with a happy ending took place in Ontario, Canada, and the event is the subject of an ongoing investigation. The police haven't been able to identify the shooter, and the firearm used hasn't been recovered, the study reports.

SEE ALSO: GEORGIA MAN SUSTAINING 12-HOUR ERECTION AFTER SMOKING MARIJUANA WAS HOSPITALIZED

Shot in the chest while walking down the street

According to the study, the anonymous, 30-year-old Canadian woman was walking down the street when she felt "heat and pain" in her left chest. Upon seeing blood gushing down her body, she took herself to the emergency room where she'd soon be transferred to the hospital's trauma center.

The examinations revealed that she had been shot, and the bullet had ended up in the woman's lower right chest wall. 

Breast Implants Save Woman's Life by Deflecting Bullet Away From Her Heart
Bullet in the right chest wall on X-ray, Source: McEvenue, et al (Plastic Surgery Case Studies (CC BY NC 4.0)

Doctors reported that it could end up in the woman's heart if not for her left implant deflecting the projectile's trajectory

Suffered only a fractured rib and the loss of her breast implants

The photographs show that the bullet had clearly traveled through the left-side implant, which deflected it over to the right implant. 

Breast Implants Save Woman's Life by Deflecting Bullet Away From Her Heart

The woman’s right and left breast implants, with bullet tracts seen in each, Source: McEvenue, et al (Plastic Surgery Case Studies (CC BY NC 4.0)

The photo on the right shows the left breast implant. The bullet's trajectory through the implant is shown clearly. The right breast implant shows damage from the bullet trajectory.

This 3-dimensional image demonstrates the entry wound on the left breast (right arrow), the route of the bullet (middle arrow), and the bullet stopping in the right lateral chest wall (left arrow).

Breast Implants Save Woman's Life by Deflecting Bullet Away From Her Heart
Source: McEvenue, et al (Plastic Surgery Case Studies (CC BY NC 4.0)

As a result, thank's to her D-cups, the woman suffered only a fractured right rib and the loss of her breast implants. Her implants were removed, and her wounds were cleaned. As a precaution, she was given antibiotics by her doctors.

"The unfortunate story has a happy ending in that the patient only suffered minor injuries and made a complete recovery," Giancarlo McEvenue, research team leader and plastic surgeon, says.

There've been other cases too

Moreover, the study reports that they've found four other similar cases where a woman's breast implant had gotten in the way of a bullet, with at least in two cases implants being life-savers. Who knew breast implants were bulletproof? 

However, according to the researchers, theirs is the first case of an implant deflecting the bullet to "relative safety".

The findings are reported in Plastic Surgery Case Studies.

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