Indian man lives for two months with bullet in his heart

An Indian man was recovering well after undergoing surgery to remove a bullet that had been lodged in his heart for two months, a doctor said Wednesday.

Bharat Sharma, 32 was shot twice in July after becoming accidently caught up in a bank robbery in the country's eastern Uttar Pradesh state, according to a report in the Times of India.

Sharma had surgery to remove a bullet lodged in his waist, but local surgeons had refused to take out the one in his heart, fearing he would die instantly, the report said.

Sharma finally travelled to the western city of Ahmedabad for the surgery on Tuesday to remove the .20 calibre bullet lodged near the apex of his heart's left ventricle.

Cardiac surgeon Anil Jain said he and his team of two performed a "complicated" three-hour operation to remove the bullet and stitch up the heart.

"The bullet was stuck horizontally between the valves," said Jain, from the SAL private hospital in Ahmedabad.

"Also, since the patient had lost lots of blood after the incident, we had to be very careful," he told AFP.

"How the patient survived and reached us is pure destiny, Jain said.

The doctor said Sharma would be able to return to work in another month after his recovery in the hospital's intensive care unit.

© 2014 AFP