Veteran engineer living with bullet in his chest since July 15

ISTANBUL

A civil engineer who was shot while helping injured civilians on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul on the night of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, has been living with a bullet in his chest for five years.

Murat Aksu told daily Hürriyet about what happened on the bridge that night and afterward.

Waking up to the insistent phone calls of his friend in the middle of night, Aksu saw the then-Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım speaking and thousands of people pouring into the streets when he turned on the television.

Getting into his car after saying goodbye to his wife, Aksu initially intended to go to Atatürk Airport to welcome President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but he gave up on this plan when he learned that the bridge was closed.

Aksu had to leave his car in the middle of the road after trying to move forward with the crowd, but just at this time guns began to fire.

Later that night, Aksu was shot in the chest while trying to lift a wounded person from the ground, but he continued his rescue efforts as he could not feel the bullet exit from his back.

“I stuck my finger in the wound to see if I could get the bullet out, but I couldn’t find anything inside. I pressed my shirt to the wound and sat at the bus stop,” adding that he came across two young men around at that time asking if he was injured. He was later taken to the hospital by them.

Noting that the bullet was stable and stuck between the bones and only stitches were put on the wound in the hospital, Aksu said that he was examined again when he went to the doctor a few days after July 15.

“I could not place this bullet like this If I wanted to. I have to cut your ribs to get it out. Let the bullet stay here. Let it stay on your chest as a medal of honor,” the doctor reportedly told him after a physical examination.

Since that night, Aksu has been living with the bullet in his chest.