A ten-year-old boy has escaped with his life after falling head first from a tree onto a foot-long meat skewer that passed all the way through his skull.
Xavier Cunningham had been playing in a tree house at his home in Harrisonville, Missouri, when he was attacked by wasps. As he tried to escape the hornets, he tumbled from the branches onto the metal bar stuck in the ground below, which went through his face to the back of his head.
His mother, Gabrielle Miller, ran outside “when she heard screaming” and discovered her injured son, who still had half of the skewer sticking out of his face, says The Guardian. As they rushed to hospital, he “told her ‘I’m dying, Mom’”, adds the Chicago Sun Times.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Incredibly, the skewer “completely missed the ten-year-old’s eye, brain, spinal cord and major blood vessels”, reports Sky News.
Dr Koji Ebersole, the neurologist who treated Xavier, said: “It was one in a million for it to pass five or six inches through the front of the face to the back and not have hit these things.
“I have not seen anything passed to that depth in a situation that was survivable, let alone one where we think the recovery will be near complete if not complete.”
About 100 medical workers were involved in Xavier’s surgery, on Sunday. Because the skewer was square with sharp edges, “the instrument needed to come out perfectly straight, and any error could have made his injuries more serious”, the news site explains.
Xavier is expected to be discharged later this week, and is already “playing video games in his hospital room and joking with family, who see a higher power at play in Xavier’s survival”, says CNN.
“He could’ve bled to death in that field, covered in [wasps],” said the boy’s father, Shannon Miller. “Only God could have directed things to happen in a way that would save him like this… it really was a miracle.”
The family have dubbed Xavier the Missouri Miracle and have started a crowdfunding page to help pay for his medical costs.
-
October 13 editorial cartoonsCartoons Monday's political cartoons include Donald Trump's consolation prize, government workers during shutdown, and more
-
Can Gaza momentum help end the war in Ukraine?Today's Big Question Zelenskyy’s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles hints at ‘warming relations’ between Ukraine and US
-
The Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners being releasedThe Explainer Triumphant Donald Trump addresses the Israeli parliament as families on both sides of the Gaza war reunite with their loved ones
-
Russia is ‘helping China’ prepare for an invasion of TaiwanIn the Spotlight Russia is reportedly allowing China access to military training
-
Interpol arrests hundreds in Africa-wide sextortion crackdownIN THE SPOTLIGHT A series of stings disrupts major cybercrime operations as law enforcement estimates millions in losses from schemes designed to prey on lonely users
-
China is silently expanding its influence in American citiesUnder the Radar New York City and San Francisco, among others, have reportedly been targeted
-
How China uses 'dark fleets' to circumvent trade sanctionsThe Explainer The fleets are used to smuggle goods like oil and fish
-
One year after mass protests, why are Kenyans taking to the streets again?today's big question More than 60 protesters died during demonstrations in 2024
-
What happens if tensions between India and Pakistan boil over?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION As the two nuclear-armed neighbors rattle their sabers in the wake of a terrorist attack on the contested Kashmir region, experts worry that the worst might be yet to come
-
Why Russia removed the Taliban's terrorist designationThe Explainer Russia had designated the Taliban as a terrorist group over 20 years ago
-
Inside the Israel-Turkey geopolitical dance across SyriaTHE EXPLAINER As Syria struggles in the wake of the Assad regime's collapse, its neighbors are carefully coordinating to avoid potential military confrontations
