Xavier Cunningham, 10, survives after a metal meat skewer impales his face

Xavier Cunningham and his mates climbed into a cabin when a wasp landed on his hand.

On Saturday afternoon, the children had fallen into a nest of solid yellow jackets in a neighbor's cabin in western Missouri, and Xavier, who was at the top of the ladder, tried to remove one of them. . But Xavier's father-in-law said the 10-year-old man had lost balance and had fallen face down – where he and his friends had stuck a long skewer of metal meat that had been frozen. they had found.

"He fell on it," Shannon Miller said of her son, explaining how the skewer impaled the boy's cheek and pierced his head.

"He said that he had felt something hot and burning in his face and then saw the end and immediately knew what had happened," Miller said, adding that Xavier was not sure what had happened. is lifted covered with yellow jackets – with a long stem protruding from his face began running towards his house, moaning: Take me off! "

"I think the yellow jackets were more painful for him at the time," Miller said.

Xavier's surgeon said that the skewer had entered the boy's face under his eye and had traveled several centimeters through the skull, but it did not puncture the skin behind his head and missed all his main arteries.

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Miller said that he was not at home at that time. Xavier's mother took him to a hospital near their home in Harrisonville, about 40 miles from Kansas City.

Miller said the doctors there told them that they were not equipped to deal with such an injury and that the boy was taken by ambulance to Children Mercy hospital in Kansas. City, then to the University Hospital of Kansas.

While Xavier's medical team was working on a plan, Miller said Xavier's mother and himself stayed up all night to pray, sing, and watch the boy sleep.

"It was the hardest part," Miller said. He said that Xavier would only sleep for a few minutes at a time, then wake up in panic, asking, "Am I dead? Am I still alive?

On Sunday morning, he went to surgery.

Koji Ebersole, director of endovascular neurosurgery at the University of Kansas health system, said the medical team's first priority was to protect Xavier's airways; because the skewer had hit his jaw muscles, he could not open his mouth for the medical staff to insert a breathing tube, so they had to find a way to get through the boy's nose.

The second priority was to get the kebab out as clean as it was. Although the device entered Xavier's skull, he had missed the main arteries of this area – the carotid artery and the vertebral artery, as well as the blood vessels nearby – Ebersole added that the surgeons did not want damage the same areas by removing them. The surgeon added that the skewer had punctured one of Xavier's jugular veins but had closed the wound, preventing the boy from bleeding.

He said that he "barely missed everything", qualifying the scenario "one in a million."

An army of surgeons specializing in neurosurgery of the ear, nose and throat (ENT), pediatrics, trauma and more, worked for hours to remove the skewer. Ebersole said the team had made an incision on the side of Xavier's neck to expose the vessels so they could be ready to control any bleeding, and then using the X-ray, they slowly started removing the stem.

"We worried about the difficulty of removing the device because it was buried so deeply," he said, but "after a few moments, he began to move more freely."

And the surgeons were able to remove it.

Ebersole said Xavier would suffer for a while and voice changes could occur because the skewer was so close to his vocal cords, but the surgeon does not expect any significant alterations.

Ebersole stated that "the depth of this thing went through the skill and this child being awake and talking and alive" was exceptional. And the image of the skewer piercing Xavier's skull?

"It's amazing," added Ebersole.

Miller, the boy's father-in-law, said that when Xavier woke up Sunday afternoon, the first thing he asked his parents was: Is it out? Has it come out? "

Miller said he recognized Xavier's medical team – and God – for his son's survival.

Xavier is still recovering at the hospital, but is expected to return home this week.

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