Silicone breast implant deflected bullet away from woman's heart, doctors say

'Deflection must have occurred' and only possible source was the implant

A Canadian woman who was shot in the chest has cheated death when the bullet was deflected away from her heart by one of her breast implants.

The unidentified victim took herself to a local emergency room after being struck by the bullet while walking down the street. She reported feeling heat and pain in the left of her chest and saw blood.

At the trauma centre, the victim was comfortable and in no distress, but had an entry wound above her breast with thermal marks around it indicating she was in close proximity to the firearm.

Sage Journals reports doctors as saying that she was 'likely' saved by one of her silicone implants, which lay over her heart and deflected the bullet's trajectory leaving her with just a fractured rib.

Three-dimensional imaging shows the path the bullet took, which was confirmed by removal of the implants. The bullet deflected off the left implant and lodged underneath her right breast.

This is believed to be the first recorded case of a breast implant altering the direction of a bullet.

There are four other documented cases of implants slowing bullets down, two of which were lifesaving

Intraoperative view of left breast implant showing bullet trajectory through implant (McEvenue et al., Plastic Surgery Case Studies, 2020 / Sage)

The patient was operated on at the McLean Clinic in Mississauga, Ontario. Surgeons first removed the bullet for police analysis, then removed the left breast implant finding a “bullet tract” that aligned with the entry wound.

3-dimensional rendered image showing left breast entry wound (right arrow), tract of bullet with disruption of presternal soft tissues (middle arrow), and bullet in right lateral chest wall (left arrow) (McEvenue et al., Plastic Surgery Case Studies, 2020 / Sage)

The right breast implant was found to be flipped upside down with its dome damaged.

It was concluded that a 'deflection must have occurred' and that the only possible source was the implant.

The case study article noted that neither the shooter nor the firearm have been found.