Bullet in Heart for Ten Years

Our Grandfather, Michael Reilly joined the Connaught Rangers in 1911. He was shot in Neuve Chapelle in the spring of 1915, the bullet piercing both lungs and his heart. He lay unconscious for a week, but the bullet could not be located, and he was eventually sent back to the firing line. He was in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and was buried in a shell hole, and afterwards seriously wounded by shrapnel in the thigh. His wounds required two operations, and he was x-rayed but still no one discovered that there was a bullet in the muscle of the heart. Michael was transferred to the labour corps, and after the armistice was sent back home to Longford on pension. The local doctor referred him to the Richmond Hospital in Dublin where he was X-rayed and it was only then that the bullet was located in his heart. The British Government took over Michael's case immediately and he was transferred to Queen Mary's Hospital near London. Major J.E. Roberts operated and successfully removed the bullet which had been lodged in his heart for 10 years. Michael made a complete recovery and lived the rest of his life in his home county of Longford, dying many years later.