Jogger survives javelin in chest
A 50-year-old doctor in Iraklion was jogging around the Cretan city’s National Stadium on Monday when a javelin, thrown by an athlete training on the same field, went astray and hit the runner in the chest. Dr Manolis Dzordzakakis kept his cool and pulled the spear out of his chest himself. He was rushed by ambulance to the city’s Venizeleio Hospital, where he is head of the pathology clinic. The javelin had pierced his chest near his heart but did not damage any vital organs. He underwent surgery for three hours. «He was fortunate in his misfortune,» said surgeon Ioannis Samaritakis. «If (the javelin) had entered at a level angle or upward, he would have been killed instantly,» he said. «He kept cool and pulled it out himself, like in cowboy movies.» Costas Gonianakis, another surgeon, noted that Dzordzakakis’s ribs had deflected the javelin toward his belly. «It pierced everything in its path: the small intestine, the duodenum and the large intestine. He was operated on and I believe he will do well,» he told reporters.
