When surgeons in Portugal opened the sole of a 71-year-old woman's foot, they found a piece of an umbrella rod so badly corroded that it had set off a metal reaction in the surrounding tissue. After removing what they safely could, they made a decision that might surprise many patients: they left about 3 centimeters of the rod where it was.
Over the next two years, the woman recovered fully and could walk up to 10 kilometers, a little more than 6 miles, without complications. Her case, described by family medicine and orthopedic doctors at the Local Health Unit of Alto Minho in Viana do Castelo, was published on Sept. 2, 2025, in the peer-reviewed journal Cureus.
