An 11-year-old boy, who belongs to Makassar in Indonesia, had a traumatic accident that involved him falling off a tree and impaling his scrotum on a 5-cm long stick.
The boy, whose name hasn't been revealed, lost his footing and fell on a branch, which pierced his genitalia though missed his testicles just by millimeters.
Doctors shared details in the journal of Urology Case Reports of how the boy was taken to a hospital four hours after the fall. Photos showed the object had reached his pubic bone after penetrating the bottom left of his scrotum. Before removing the stick, doctors scanned the area to ensure his testicles weren't injured.
A pipe was kept in his wound to get rid of excess fluid. He was given a tetanus vaccine and antibiotics to help stop him getting any infection. A month later when he was examined, doctors said that he had made a full recovery.
Jonathan Glass, a consultant urological surgeon and member of the Royal College of Surgeons, told Daily Mail, "This young boy was fortunate in that the foreign body did not pierce any vital structures. Penetrating injury to the scrotum and perineum is fortunately rare."
According to him, life changing injury could have happened had the object pierced through his other organs like the penis, urethra or the testis. Had the object gone within the abdomen, other structures at risk would have been the small and large bowel, bladder as well as major arteries and veins. Injuries to these body parts could have had life-long consequences for the patient, said the surgeon.
Such injuries don't happen frequently, but a few years ago, a video showed how a man was skewered by a pole going up his bottom and into his chest, reported The Sun. While laying on a hospital bed, he seemed to be in a lot of pain as he covered his eyes while the doctors examined his injury.
Similarly, once a 22-year-old builder impaled on a rod after falling from a construction platform. The metal object narrowly missed his heart. The man, whose name wasn't revealed, was working on a building site in the city of Huzhou in China.
