Man discovers he has knife buried in chest 15 months after attack in Philippines

Manila: A man didn't know that he had a knife stuck in his chest for more than a year after getting stabbed while walking home. Kent Ryan Tomao, 36, was attacked in Kidapawan city in the Philippines when he was returning from work in January last year. He got to know about the knife only recently when he went for a health check for his new job.

Kent on Tuesday discovered that the knife was lodged next to his rib cage inches away from piercing his lungs. He now claims that the doctors who treated him last year just sewed his wound, leaving the four-inch-long knife in his body.

He is demanding the doctors who missed the knife remove it so that he can start his new job as a miner. His new employers think that it would not be safe for him to work with the blade inside his body.

"The doctors did not check my wounds properly last year so I believe they are partly at fault about what happened. They should fix this," he was quoted as saying by LADbible.

Kent claims that his wounds were stitched and he was given painkillers after which he was asked to go home.

Fourteen months later, in his pre-employment medical test, it was found that the knife was still stuck in his rib cage.

Kent said that his chest has hurt sometimes during the cold weather, however, he never thought it to be a serious problem.

He said, "I always wondered why I felt pain in my chest when the weather was cold. But I had no idea there is a knife in my chest. The pain was never bad enough to even go to see a doctor. I just waited for the pain to pass. Now I'm relieved that I know the real problem."

Kent will have to undergo surgery to get the knife removed, however, he doesn't have the money for it.

He said, "I can't start working until I remove this knife but without a job, I will not have money to pay for my medical needs."

He will return to the hospital next month to ask the doctors to fix it. "I will not press charges, I just want them to remove the knife so I can start working in my new company," he added.