The Central Referral Hospital (CRH) at Tadong in Gangtok has successfully removed a bullet that was lodged inside the left forehead of a 16-year-old boy for over three months after a homemade gun he had allegedly made opened fire by mistake.

The CRH, a constituent of Sikkim Manipal University, said the boy was brought to the hospital with headache, nausea, vomiting and fever. The CT scan and X-ray reported a metallic foreign body inside the skull. A team headed by consultant neurosurgeon of the hospital, Dr Pranav Rai, successfully removed the bullet.

According to the hospital, the boy accidentally shot himself while trying out a firearm he had designed after watching online gun-making videos. “The exact details of the events are being investigated by the police...,” said the CRH.

“Contrast enhanced CT scan of the brain showed multiple pockets of pus with thickened capsules surrounding the projectile,” the CRH release emailed to The Telegraph said. There was significant edema of the surrounding brain causing dangerous mass effect and impending cerebral herniation, which are life-threatening, it said.

Edema is swelling caused by excess fluid trapped in a body’s tissues and cerebral herniation occurs when something inside the skull produces pressure that moves brain tissues.

The boy made a “remarkable recovery” without complications, it added.