A 9-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after a freak accident with an arrow. He managed to pull the arrow from his face without suffering significant harm.
Speaking with local outlet KARE 11, the boy's parents Dave and Abby Deterding say the incident happened back in March. Their son Gus slipped on the icy driveway while trying to pack his bow and arrows in the truck. He quickly came running to them after the arrow struck his skull.
"He was carrying everything at once," Abby recalled, "And he fell right on it. I was vacuuming downstairs, and Dave was getting dressed, and [Gus] came in, in a panic."
"He had a very small cut on his head," Dave told the outlet. But he had a lot of blood on his face.
Arrow Pierces Skull
"He kept saying. 'Mom, am I dying, am I going to leave you? I don't want to leave you yet,' " Abby told KARE 11. "And I'm like, 'Gus, no, we're just getting stitches.' "
They rushed him to the hospital, but a doctor transported them to a larger Children's Minnesota Hospital. Doctors then discharged the 9-year-old. But Gus became ill and began vomitting, forcing them to bring him back a second time. In horror, Dr. Ken Maslonka realized the arrow had pierced the boy's brain and back again.
"He looked too normal," Maslonka said. "I would say in the 28 years I've been at Children's of Minnesota, I've never seen anything like this."
Doctors scanned the boy's brain, finding a small piece of skull pushed into the organ.
"It literally took my breath away and I felt, like, sick to my stomach," Abby said. "I couldn't believe it, 'No, that far, what?' "
Fast forward three months later, and Gus is completely healed and normal. "He is as normal as he was beforehand," the doctor said. "It's either fortune, at a minimum, or it's heavenly presence of God controlling the direction of that arrow."
The parents haven't pressed him on the arrow incident.
"We know it didn't just happen," Dave acknowledged.
"It's a miracle," both parents told the outlet.
Abby added, "We're just thankful, so grateful."
