A Brazilian man can consider himself lucky to be alive after he mistook a gunshot to the head for getting hit with a rock on New Year’s Eve and going about his business for four days.

21-year-old Mateus Facio was partying in Cabo Frio on December 31st of last year when he heard a loud noise, like an explosion in his head, followed by sharp pain. He instinctively put his hand up to the top of his head and felt blood. A doctor in the crowd noticed the blood dripping from his head and helped stop the bleeding, but thinking that he had just been hit by a random stone thrown by someone in the heat of the moment, Mateus just went about his business. He just applied some ice to the wound, celebrated New Year’s with friends, and then drove 300 km (186 miles) to his home in Juiz de Fora. On January 3rd, he went to work as usual, then drove to Rio de Janeiro to meet some friends, and it was only in the afternoon of the 4th that he realized something was wrong with him…

Photo: personal archive

After taking a nap on January 4th, Mateus felt his left arm weaker than usual. He could move it, but it felt strange, like he didn’t have the power or the coordination to pick up something with it. Worried, he got dressed and went straight to a local private hospital, where he also told doctors about the stone to the head he had received four days prior. Only a CT scan revealed that the stone he felt hit his head was actually a bullet that was now lodged in his head.

“The doctors and nurses who saw Mateus there almost couldn’t believe it,” the student’s mother, Luciana, told Globo. “For a person to spend four days with a bullet in the head and not feel anything is inexplicable. He was born again. We can celebrate Matthew’s birth twice.”

Photo: Globo

Doctors explained to Mateus and his family that the 9mm bullet in his brain had to be surgically removed, because, although located in a less critical part of his brain, it could cause serious problems in the future. Obviously, there were risks associated with the procedure, such as brain bleeding, brain fluid leakage, and even death, but the operation was a success, and Mateus is already on his way to a full recovery.

Living with a bullet in the brain for four days is no small thing, but we once wrote about a man who lived with a bullet lodged inside the brain for 20 years.