- WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT
- Darius Foreman, 13, was building a tree house when a five-foot wooden board came down on top of his head
- A six-inch screw became lodged in his skull just a millimeter away from making him bleed to death
- He underwent delicate surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, to remove the nail and was sent home on his 13th birthday
A 13-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after a six-inch screw pierced his skull just a millimeter away from killing him.
Darius Foreman was building a tree house on Saturday at his home in Maryland when he fell from a branch knocking over a five-foot wooden board that came down on top of his head.
A six-inch screw became lodged in his skull one millimeter away from draining the fluid from his brain which would have caused him to bleed to death.
After firemen cut down the wooden board so he could fit into the helicopter, Darius was airlifted to Johns Hopkins Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery to carefully remove the nail and was released on his 13th birthday.
Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, are pictured removing the five-foot wooden board stuck on Darius Foreman’s head
An x-ray shows the six-inch screw that became lodged in Darius’ head
Darius, 13, was building a tree house when he fell and the board came down on his head. The screw was just a millimeter away from killing him
‘I absolutely panicked,’ Darius’ mother Joy Ellingsworth told CNN. ‘It was very scary, one of the scariest things I’ve ever been through.’
The five-foot board was still attached to Darius’ head when the ambulance arrived but he could not fit inside.
Fire rescue used the family’s saw to cut the board down to two feet.
He was airlifted to Johns Hopskins Hospital in Baltimore where Dr Alan Cohen was called to perform emergency surgery.
Dr Cohen told CNN he was on ‘pins and needles’ during the operation because one small misstep could be ‘catastrophic’.
During the two-hour surgery tiny fragments of bone and a small blood clot were removed.
An X-ray shows a portion of the screw lodged between the the two hemispheres of the brain.
The screw threatened to tear into the largest canal of the brain and drain blood and fluids.
The operation was a successful and Darius was discharged Thursday – on his 13th birthday.
‘He was a millimeter away from having himself bleed to death,’ said Dr Cohen.
‘He’s a lucky kid,’ he added.
The six-inch screw was successfully removed from Darius’ skull during a delicate surgery