Man had knife blade in his back for three years A vehicle tests an ice road on the Mackenzie river, Northwest Territories, Canada. The Mackenzie is one of only two routes to Fort Good Hope. Photograph: Canadian Press/Rex A Canadian man was scratching what he thought was an old itch when it turned out to be a knife blade that had been buried in his back for almost three years. Billy McNeely said this week that it went back to a birthday party in his home town, Fort Good Hope, Northwest Territories, in April 2010. McNeely got into a fight over an arm-wrestling contest and was stabbed five times. A doctor stitched him up at the time but did not take any x-rays of the wound. Ever since then McNeely had set off metal detectors, and he had a lump in his back where the knife went in. It never stopped nagging him and grew more painful this week. Doctors dug out a blade measuring about 7cm (2.7in).