A woman has remarkably survived being shot in the chest, likely due to a silicone breast implant that a study of the case credits with saving her life.
The account, reported in SAGE Journals, details an incident during which a 30-year-old woman was walking down the street when she felt "heat and pain" in the left side of her chest. Looking down, she saw blood and presented at the local emergency room. The patient was subsequently transferred to the trauma center for "evaluation of penetrating chest trauma due to gunshot wound".
The case study notes that the firearm was not recovered and the shooter is unknown.
Regarding the incident, the case study surmises;
"Here, we report the first case in the literature of a 30-year-old female patient with silicone breast implants altering bullet trajectory and thereby saving her life."
Surgeon Giancarlo McEvenue and colleagues wrote:
"Based on our review of the literature, there are surprisingly few cases of breast implants ruptured due to firearm injury published in the literature.
"Given the high number of women with implants and the relatively high numbers of gun violence in the United States, the authors believed there would be more than the four previously published cases found.
"Our report represents the fifth reported and the third, where the implant is believed to be responsible for saving the patient's life. Although rare, these observations lend support to the hypothesis that indeed breast implants can save lives."
They concluded;
"In conclusion, we report here the case of a 30-year-old woman whose life was likely saved by deflection of the bullet by her silicone implants. Our analysis of bullet trajectory to show the implant doing this is the first of its kind in the literature.
"Furthermore, after reviewing the literature, we recommend removal of the implants after firearm-related injury and management of the implant pocket as potentially contaminated."
Per Gizmodo, the woman was told that she should not get new implants for at least six months.
