A 71-year-old woman in Portugal sought urgent care for pain in the sole of her right foot that had built up over several days. She had not injured it or overworked it. Imaging showed why it hurt: a 6.5-centimeter metal rod lay deep in her foot, near the base of her second metatarsal, one of the long bones of the midfoot.
Only when doctors asked about it did she remember a puncture injury from an umbrella rod more than 40 years earlier. A traditional healer had removed it, she believed. She never saw a doctor and never had an X-ray.
