Miracles do happen; Boy survives after skewer impales his skull

Chicago, Sep 12: A 10 year old boy has miraculously survived after a skewer went right through his head and impaled the skull. Luckily, the skewer did not damage his brain. The doctors are calling it as a 'one in a million accident'.

Xavier Cunningham from Chicago learnt what difference can an inch do in a very hurtful way. In what could have been a fatal accident, Xavier fell from a tree-house ladder and landed head first on to the sharp metal that was fixed below.

Following a surgery, Xavier is back on his feet much for the delight of his parents and the medical team. "This thing had spared the eye, spared the brain, spared the spinal cord," neurosurgeon Koji Ebersole, head of the local university health authority said. "It was one in a million for it to pass five or six inches (13-15 centimetres) through the front of the face to the back and not have hit these things," he added.

The doctor said that the skewer plunged through a tiny space in his head surrounded by major blood vessels. The skewer pierced his left cheek below the eye and went clean through his skull, without piercing the skin in the back of the neck.

Around 100 medical personnel took part in the operation, Ebersole said. They slowly removed the skewer, taking care to avoid blood vessels that were within piercing distance.