[...] he sought treatment for what he thought was an ear disease [...]
These sorts of stories always get to me. How could one not know what happened? 
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Man Lives Four Years With Knife Stuck In Head
10:00pm UK, Thursday February 17, 2011
A Chinese man sought treatment for headaches for four years - only to discover he had had a four-inch dagger lodged in his head.
Doctors in Yuxi, in China's south western Yunnan province operated on the man to extract the rusty blade.
Known as Mr Ni, he was stabbed in the lower right jaw when fighting off a robber four years ago.
After that, he began to suffer from a variety of complaints.
He took himself to hospital several times over the years but none of the examinations found the cause of his symptoms.
Apart from frequent headaches, these included bleeding from the mouth, difficulty swallowing food and becoming hoarse.
He said he also occasionally found himself talking nonsense.
Doctors at the People's Hospital in Yuxi finally discovered what was causing the problem when he sought treatment for what he thought was an ear disease.
"We checked his mouth, but no wound or scar has been found. It is very strange as to how the blade got into his head," said Xu Wen, the deputy director of the hospital's oral medicine unit.
Doctors say Mr Ni escaped death because the blade missed vital blood vessels and important facial nerves.
Mr. Ni is now recovering in hospital.
He told medical staff: "I used injections to kill the pains in my head and ears."
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