It was January 2006 when Ellin Klor, holding a bag containing knitting needles, fell on her friend’s front porch.
One of the needles pierced Klor’s heart, although she didn’t know it at the time, ABC News reported on its Web site.
“I put everything down and lifted up my sweater and shirt and looked down and saw this broken knitting needle sticking out of my chest,” Klor said. “And someone said, ‘Should we pull it out?’ And I said, ‘No, call 911.’”
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Klor knew from watching the medical drama “ER” that she could bleed to death if she pulled the needle out herself. She went to the hospital, where she was in surgery for five hours. She recovered and was released from the hospital.
Ten days later, Klor received a phone call from the hospital — one of the X-ray technicians discovered an enlarged lymph node. Klor had breast cancer.
"It was like the other shoe had dropped," she said. "It was really incredible to get that kind of news after I had just survived almost dying."
Klor went through eight rounds of chemotherapy and credits the knitting needle for saving her life. Today, she is cancer-free.
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