Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
Video Credit: AsiaWire
This is the moment doctors pull a 4-inch water bottle thermometer spike from a toddler’s eye socket after he fell on the metal rod and it impaled his brain.
Two-year-old Cheng Xiyu is said to have been holding the bottle lid and metal thermometer in his hand when he tripped and suffered the horrific injury on 9th December.
His mother, Ms Zhang, rushed him to a local clinic in the county of Jingyang, in north-western China’s Shaanxi Province, but his case was too severe and saw him referred straight to Xi’an Children’s Hospital in the provincial capital.
Ms Zhang, who was preparing warm baby formula for Xiyu at the time, recalled: “I put him on the bed and told him to stay there, but he grabbed the bottle lid and ran towards me.
“He was running after me with the lid in his hand, then he tripped. He fell face first, and I saw the thing next to his eye.”
Shi Hangyu, the hospital’s chief neurosurgeon, said 0.8 inches of the thermometer spike was in the tot’s right eye socket, while more than 2 inches had pierced his brain.
Doctor Shi said: “The metal rod glanced his right eye and was pressing against it.
“It entered his brain and caused some harm, but it didn’t damage an area which significantly affects cognitive function.”
Following a series of tests, Xiyu was brought into an operational theatre and the bottle lid was carefully pulled from his eye socket, video shows.
Doctor Shi added: “The biggest challenge we faced the risk of piercing his eye or further injuring his brain.
“We were constantly looking for the best angle to remove it, and tried to wiggle it loose first.
“The actual process of pulling the thermometer out, disinfecting his wound and such took no more than 10 minutes.
“But the thorough evaluations we did beforehand took several hours.”
Xiyu is in stable condition and is able to see out his right eye without any problems, but he remains hospitalised.
Doctor Shi said: “We’re now monitoring several things, one of which is the path the spike took into his head. We’re concerned about possible brain plasma leakage.
“Another concern is, of course, infections. But even in the case of no infections, he will need to be kept here for one week.”
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