Tunisian surgeons were able to extract a dagger from the back of an Algerian citizen after about 25 years, according to Tunisian media reports.
The surgeons removed the dagger, which was embedded in the body of the injured Tariq Fleilisa, at a depth of more than five centimeters, reports a local Arabic daily quoting Reuters.
Fleilisa said in a video published by Algerian media that he was stabbed in 1997 during skirmishes with other people in the city of Setif, after which he was transferred to the hospital for treatment, but the doctors did not pay attention to the dagger.
Fleilisa added that he had been taking injections and sedatives for years because of the excruciating pain he was feeling and hindering him from working in addition to the psychological problems, without knowing that he was holding a dagger between his ribs.
In the end, the dagger was discovered a few months ago after undergoing x-rays, but doctors in Setif Hospital and in the capital, Algiers, refused to perform the operation because of its danger and the presence of the dagger near the spine.
Fleilisa made a video call to the local authorities in Setif to help him go abroad to undergo the surgery, before choosing to travel to Tunisia, where he was successfully operated