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![st p1 Spear Gun Accident [1].JPG](/polopoly_fs/st-p1-spear-gun-accident-1-jpg-1.1323982!/image/565686276.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_300/565686276.jpg)
AP
In this undated image provided by University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, a spear accidentally shot through Yasser Lopez's skull is seen. Lopez, 16, was in serious condition Tuesday, June 19, 2012, at Jackson Memorial Hospitals Ryder Trauma Center. Hospital officials say one of Lopezs friends was loading a speargun when it accidentally fired. Lopez was taken to the trauma center June 7 with roughly 3 feet of the spear protruding from his forehead. (AP Photo/University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital)
LONDON: These incredible X-ray images show how a 16-year-old boy miraculously cheated death after a fishing spear pierced his skull and brain.
Yasser Lopez was swimming with a group of friends in a lake near his home in Miami-Dade, Florida, when a 15-year-old friend accidentally touched the trigger of a fishing spear gun he was loading.
It sent the spear hurtling towards Yasser, and hit the teen 2cm above his right eye. The object became lodged in his skull, in the right side of his brain.
Both the boys “woke up” to find Yasser had the spear’s tip protruding from the back of his head and nearly 1 metre of spear sticking out from the front of his forehead.
“It’s something you don’t see every day, to have a patient awake and speaking with a three-foot spear through his head,” Dr George Garcia, an army trauma surgeon, said on Monday.
Doctors suggested Yasser had initially lost consciousness, while the friend could have passed out in shock.
![st p1 Spear Gun Accident [1].JPG](/polopoly_fs/st-p1-spear-gun-accident-1-jpg-1.1323987!/image/132937375.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_300/132937375.jpg)
In this undated image provided by University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, a spear accidentally shot through Yasser Lopez's skull is seen. Lopez, 16, was in serious condition Tuesday, June 19, 2012, at Jackson Memorial Hospitals Ryder Trauma Center. Hospital officials say one of Lopezs friends was loading a speargun when it accidentally fired. Lopez was taken to the trauma center June 7 with roughly 3 feet of the spear protruding from his forehead. (AP Photo/University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital)
AP
Yasser was flown by helicopter to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
He was chemically paralysed as doctors decided what to do while fighting the urge to pull out the spear from his head.
Instead, they drafted in supplies from the Miami-Dade fire department, and used cutters and grips to stabilise the spear. They removed some of it before taking the x-ray. Surgeons then spent three hours taking out the spear.
The team said they were stunned by Yasser’s recovery so far.
“The amazing thing is the boy is able to speak a little now,” neurosurgeon Ross Bullock said.
The teen, who will remain in hospital for several months while his injuries are monitored, cannot remember the accident, doctors said. – Daily Mail
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