Crooks robbed and stabbed 37-year-old Mr Li when he was working as a taxi driver. The knife they used had snapped at the handle and the blade was left embedded – and hidden – between his skull and ear.

37岁的李先生曾经是一名出租车司机，之前被一伙歹徒抢劫并刺伤了，歹徒当时用的刀从刀柄处断掉，留在了他的脑部，藏于他的头骨和耳朵之间。

Mr Li had no idea that it was there but had complained about splitting headaches for years before visiting specialist medics at the Yuxi People’s Hospital in Yunnan province, south west China.

李先生完全没有发觉它的存在，一直抱怨常年头痛，后来去了中国西南部的云南省玉溪人民医院就医。

A spokesman for the hospital 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.

医院的一位发言人说：“他来的时候说长期剧烈头痛，耳朵和口腔会流血，我们一扫描就发现问题了。”

‘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 the surgical department at the hospital, had a stab at summing it all up and said that the fact that Mr Li survived and lived a relatively normal life for all this time with the knife buried in his head was a medical miracle.

“这刀在他头部四年他还活着真让人惊奇。以前看过有针啊或者其他的小东西埋进头骨，但是这么大的东西从来没见过。”

医院外科主任罗志伟医生说，李先生头部藏了把刀在这么长时间还一直过着相对正常的生活，算得上是医学奇迹了。