Mumbai: A 13-cm-long iron object penetrated a 25-year-old labourer’s right eye while working at a site in south Mumbai. Doctors at the state-run JJ Hospital, Byculla, removed it in a 3-hour surgery, leaving his vision intact.The labourer, whose name has been withheld on request, was brought to the hospital on May 19 with a thin rod penetrating his eye and blood oozing from the wound. His heart was beating at half the normal rate, and doctors in the casualty department were worried he would soon suffer cardiac arrest.A team of surgeons, led by the ENT dept and including members from the ophthalmology, plastic surgery, and anaesthesiology depts, began the surgery late evening. The rod had an angular entry but was stuck close to the carotid artery, which supplies blood to the brain. A doctor who participated in the surgery said that had the object penetrated straight in the eye, the result could have been fatal.“A complex endoscopic surgery was performed to remove the foreign body. The procedure involved orbital decompression with intranasal removal,” said JJ Hospital dean Dr Ajay Bhandarwar. The foreign body, measuring 13 cm x 2 cm x 0.5 cm, posed a significant challenge due to its location and potential complications.ENT surgeon Dr Sunita Bage, who performed the surgery, said the thin rod appeared cemented to the spot. After three hours, doctors removed the object with minimal facial damage.Around 2.30 am, he was wheeled out of the OT and taken to the CCU, where doctors tested his vision with rapid hand counting. “We got a doctor to walk in the room and found that even at 3 ft, he could rightly identify her dress colour as green,” said Dr Bage. The medical team had feared that the object was so close to the brain that it could cause paralysis, but his movements are fine. He is likely to be discharged on Monday. His relatives and co-workers took him to multiple hospitals before getting him to JJ Hospital. “They wasted five hours, and blood loss resulted in bradycardia (slow normal heart rate),” said Dr Bage.