Age 10 Boy Falls from Tree Face-First onto Meat Skewer. Doctors Call Recovery 'Miraculous'
Emergency room visits are something no parent wants for their child. But kids play and get hurt, and they need stitches or casts.
Many times those emergency room trips are for routine circumstances such as broken bones or cuts and scrapes.
What no parent ever expects is that their child might not survive the night. But such was the case for one family from Harrisonville, Missouri.
On Sept. 8, 10-year-old Xavier Cunningham was playing outside with some friends. According to a Facebook post written by the boy’s father, Shannon Miller, Xavier and his friends found a meat skewer lying in the yard.
The kids “picked it up so no one would step on it,” Shannon wrote. “As the afternoon (progressed) they stuck (the) fork end of the skewer into the ground.”
The father went on to explain that the kids had been given permission to play in their neighbor’s tree house. But no one knew that a wasp’s nest was inside.
The kids were attacked and Xavier fell from the tree house to the ground. The meat skewer that had been stuck into the ground earlier was directly in his path.
“I heard screaming, and I went running down the stairs,” Gabrielle Miller, Xavier’s mom, told The Kansas City Star. “He came in and he had this thing just sticking out.”
They rushed to the hospital and an x-ray showed where the skewer had entered the boy’s skull from front to back.
“This thing had spared the eye, spared the brain, spared the spinal cord.” Koji Ebersole told the Star, and described the situation as “miraculous.” Ebersole is the director of Endovascular Neurosurgery at The University of Kansas Health System.
A team of medical professionals was assembled and a plan was put in place. Ebersole explained that the successful surgery was due in great part to Xavier remaining calm and collected.
The family has remained strong in their faith during this entire ordeal. Xavier told his mom he wanted to see Jesus, but not just yet. Gabrielle assured him that Jesus was there with him.
Truly a remarkable story of a modern-day miracle. Shannon even posted a video of the family’s worship pastor singing Xavier’s favorite worship song.
“Xavier sang along with tears running down his face,” Shannon wrote. “Tonight we worshiped God as a family thanks to this wonderful man of God.”
Just beautiful! What an amazing testament of faith in even the most dire of circumstances. This family is a true inspiration.
A GoFundMe campaign has been started to help them pay for Xavier’s medical bills. Some funds have already been donated but they have a long way to go before they reach their $200,000 goal.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Xavier and his family during this time. We’re rooting for him to make a full recovery soon.
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