Soldier Has Four-Inch Needle Removed From Stomach - After 16 Years

Gospic, Croatia (AHN) -- After 16 years, a group of doctors finally relieved an ageing Croatian soldier of piercing stomach pains by removing a four-inch needle accidentally left inside his stomach when he was operated upon by a group of army doctors for wounds he sustained in the battlefield during the Yugoslavian civil war.

Toma Zupan. Now 73, was seriously injured in 1991 after a civil war erupted during the break up of the former Yugoslavia.

After undergoing a battlefield operation, Zupan claimed to experience stabbing stomach pains ever since the cause of which was never discovered despite regular visits to doctors.

It was not until undergoing an x-ray at the local hospital that the needle was discovered inside Zupan's stomach.

"Normally I would have blamed the doctors for the mistake they made back then but at that time but they saved my life when they operated on me - so I'll not be taking the matter further," said the former soldier who hails from Gospic in central Croatia.