So close: The X-rays taken after Xiaolin Niu, 13, fell and a hook missed his brain by a whisker.
These are the amazing X-ray images that show how a 13-year-old boy cheated death when a razor sharp hook missed his brain by two millimetres in a bizarre accident. Xiaolin Niu slipped on the icy playground at his school in Xianghai, north eastern China, and fell face down on to a steel hook attached to a broken heater that had been dumped on the tarmac. ‘It hurt a lot but I tried to be brave,’ said Xiaolin.
‘The hook was originally much longer so the school called out an engineer who cut off most of it with a welder, which was a bit frightening.’ Head surgeon Yan Shijun from nearby Changchun emergency hospital explained: ‘The hook pierced his skull but was turned to the side by the impact. ‘But any movement would have sent it into his brain and he could have died on the spot. ‘We managed to extract it very carefully. ‘He has lost his right eye but he’s very lucky to be alive at all,’ he added
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