Featured Image Credit: TV Globo/Arquivo Pessoal
Topics: World News, Health, Viral, Life
Emily Brown
What's the biggest shock you've ever had after a night out?
Maybe you checked your bank account to find out you bought drinks for the whole bar? Or realized you posted something horrific to your Instagram story?
How about realizing you got shot in the head?
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You might think you'd be aware of being shot, but one university student from Brazil has proven that's not necessarily the case.
Mateus Facio, 21, had been out with friends on a beach in Cabo Frio, east of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, where he was preparing to ring in the New Year and kick off 2024.
While on the beach Facio was hit in the head by something that prompted a pretty dramatic response, but he just assumed he'd just been struck by a stone.
Sharing his story on the Brazilian TV show Jornal Nacional, Facio explained: "I thought it was a stone, something like that.
"It was like the sound of an explosion, when a bomb goes off, but inside my head. The bleeding stopped, we left, I took a shower and went out partying."
After waking up on New Year's Day, Facio went out with his friends again to a local beach before he began his journey home to the neighbouring state of Minas Gerais on 2 January.
During the 200-mile drive, Facio began to experience spasms in his right arm which slowed his journey, making it nearly twice as long.
However, it wasn't until 4 January, after his right arm became 'droopy', that he went to hospital and doctors found out what had really happened.
Neurosurgeon Flavio Falcometa said: "Part of the bullet penetrated his brain which caused compression in that area and led to his arm’s involuntary movements.
"If it had ended up a few millimetres from where it did, it could have caused much more serious damage and left his arm or one side of his body paralyzed."
Falcometa made clear Facio was in a 'very risky' situation, but he underwent an emergency operation to remove a fragment of the bullet that had been left in his brain and is now recovering at home.
"We believe that in 20 to 30 days he will be able to continue with his normal life," Falcometa said.
After learning Facio had been shot, police took a statement from the student and are now trying to establish who fired the gun.
As part of the investigation, detectives are analysing the bullet fragment that doctors removed from Facio's head.
With her son safely back at home, Facio's mom commented: "It’s inexplicable how someone can have a bullet lodged in their head for four days and survive. I feel like my son has been born again."