--- title: "Unexploded Shell Removed From Soldier’s Chest by Surgeons Wearing Body Armor" description: "Surgery had to quickly be performed to remove an unexploded shell lodged in a Russian soldier's chest with no guarantee it wouldn't detonate at any moment." date: "2022-11-11" modified: "2022-11-11" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/unexploded-shell-removed-soldiers-chest" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "Russia" - "surgery" - "War" --- # Unexploded Shell Removed From Soldier’s Chest by Surgeons Wearing Body Armor ![Surgery had to quickly be performed to remove an unexploded shell lodged in a Russian soldier's chest with no guarantee it wouldn't detonate at any moment.]() *\Image: TASS\* A Russian soldier was rushed to the ER. His diagnosis? An unexploded shell lodged so deep in his chest it was almost touching his spine. The soldier, junior sergeant Nikolay Pasenko, probably should've been dead already from either the impact or the impending detonation. But instead, defying all expectations, he lived — thanks to surgeons at the Mandryk Central Military Clinical Hospital who successfully removed the shell in an operation that's been dubbed a "miracle" [by *TASS*](), a state-owned Russian news agency. Given Russia's ongoing and [near-universally condemned]() war in Ukraine, you might be inclined to doubt the veracity of the source — but miracles like this [have happened before](). "The patient was admitted with a wound that had penetrated \[his\] chest," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, as quoted by *TASS*. "The examination revealed that the miraculously unexploded ordnance had pierced \[his\] ribs and lungs and got lodged close to the spinal cord, between the aorta and the inferior vena cava near the heart." There was no guarantee that the munition wouldn't explode mid-surgery. The doctors — some military, some civilian — decided to operate on the soldier anyway, wearing body armor under their medical gowns, the Ministry said. And the surgery had to be done fast — Pasenko was bleeding so profusely that there was no time to dawdle on a decision, let alone relocate to a safer or better equipped location. "The unexploded shell was stuck between the aorta and the inferior vena cava close to the heart, which could have caused fatal bleeding even without the ordnance's detonation," Medical Corps Lieutenant-Colonel Dmitry Kim, who led the operation, told *TASS*. "A decision was made to carry out the surgery locally." That decision proved to be the right call. The shell was removed without detonation, and a recovering Pasenko was shipped off to a central hospital. But post-surgery, Pasenko said that, at the time, he was opposed to the doctors risking their lives. "The surgeon ventured to perform the operation, I was against it," he told the Russian news agency. "And now you see that I am sitting in front of you." "My thanks to surgeon Dmitry Kim and I will be grateful to him for the rest of my life. He replied: 'So, we will explode together.' That's it. He is a very courageous man," Pasenko said. ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()