Stabbed in the back: 3-inch knife removed after 3 years

Mark Russell, Newser | USATODAY

Billy McNeely had been bothered by back pains and a persistent itch for three years, but when he scratched it Monday night, he felt something hard and sharp. His girlfriend poked around and discovered why -- it was a knife blade, inside his back.

McNeely hightailed it to the emergency room, where doctors took out a three-inch blade, reports the Canadian Press. The 32-year-old Northwest Territories man says he was stabbed five times in April 2010, after a birthday party arm-wrestling match turned ugly.

"They stitched me up and bandaged me up," says McNeely. "They never took X-rays."

Unsurprisingly, the wound continued to hurt over the years, and even though McNeely complained about it to doctors, no one ever spotted the metal culprit. McNeely even did some jail time, and while his back set off metal detectors, doctors just assumed he had a small bit of metal embedded there, reports the CBC.

"I walked around for close to three years with this thing in my back," McNeely says, adding that he's considering legal action. "They brushed me off."

Newser also reports that a man wearing an Air France shirt made it to the cockpit -- and he's no pilot.