Operation
Picture for representationJEFF PACHOUD/AFP/Getty Images
  • A motorcycle key was lodged 1.5 inches deep in a man's head. 
  • This happened during a brawl in the victim's village.
  • The man went through a 3.5-hour surgery for its removal.

Doctors in India, since Vedic time, have been equated to God and a recent incident in the country makes them seem so, literally.

At the hospital in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, doctors treated a young man after a motorcycle key was lodged 1.5 inches deep in his skull during a brawl in his village on April 18. The man underwent a 3.5-hour surgery.

"Luckily, he didn't suffer internal bleeding, and there was no damage to his brain. Had there been severe internal bleeding, it could have cost him his life," said Dr. Ashish Bhandari, the administrator of Anand Rishi Hospital, where the patient was treated, according to Live Science.

Dr. Justin Thomas, a neurosurgeon at Northwell Health's Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, New York said that survival depends on exactly which part of the brain the object pierced. Chances of survival are different if adjacent arteries are being ruptured or draining veins of the brain are being ruptured.

For instance, chances of survival are more if the injury is not in an area of the brain called the superior sagittal sinus - one of the largest vein channels that drains blood from the brain as it might lead it a stroke, Thomas told the website.

The neurosurgeon also said that people can survive a penetrating brain injury if the surgery is done in such a way that no extra damage is caused to the surrounding brain structures and also the risk of bleeding after surgery is reduced.

The South West News Service (SWNS) reported that the man was discharged from the hospital three days after his surgery and is currently recovering.