Bullet in skull removed 64 years later

SHANGHAI, China -- Chinese doctors have removed a more than 1-inch-long bullet from a woman's skull 64 years after she was shot by Japanese Imperial Army troops, her doctor said Tuesday.

Jin Guangying, 77, was in good condition following the four-hour surgery and went home on May 3, Zhou Hong, the head of surgery at Renci Hospital in Jin's native Jiangsu province, told The Associated Press.

"I don't really know how to explain her survival with that bullet in her head for such a long time," Zhou said. "I would have say this is pure good luck."

Jin was shot in 1943 while delivering food to her father, a member of a guerrilla unit fighting Japanese troops that had invaded the region in 1937, the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported.

The 13-year-old survived under her mother's care, and the bullet apparently went undetected.

Jin suffered from periodic headaches and fits. Fearing she might have a tumor, her family arranged for a scan that revealed the presence of the now-rusty and patina green bullet, it said.

"The operation went smoothly and actually was not that hard, even though she is 77 years old," Zhou said.

No telephone number was available for Jin. Reports said has continued to live in the poor farming village where the original shooting occurred.