One eventful night, in China four years ago, a hard-working taxi driver, known as Mr. Li, was brutally attacked and robbed while on the job. Crooks took off with his money, but gave him an odd “gift” in return.

As you can see from this odd photo, one of the robbers plunged a knife deep into Mr. Li’s head, so hard that it broke off. Ten inches of the blade broke off into his head, and there it stayed for over four years.

Recently, it was surgically removed from the 37-year-old’s skull, where it was located between the skull and ear. Doctors at the Yuxi People’s Hospital, in Yunnan province, southwest China removed it soon after Mr. Li walked into the emergency room, complaining of a splitting (excuse the pun) headache for years.

A hospital spokesman said: ‘He came to us with a long history of severe head pain and unexplained bleeding from his ears and mouth. As soon as we scanned him it was obvious what was wrong.’

‘What is astonishing is that is was missed four years ago and that he has survived all this time with it in his head. We’ve seen needles and small objects buried in a skull but never something this size.’

Luo Zhiwei, head of surgery at the hospital, said that the fact that Mr Li survived and lived a somewhat normal life for all this time with the knife buried in his head was a medical miracle. By the way, Mr. Li said that he feels much better since the knife blade was removed.