Screenshot: Kansas City Star
“This thing had spared the eye, spared the brain, spared the spinal cord,” Koji Ebersole, director of endovascular neurosurgery at The University of Kansas Health System, told the Star. “But the major concern was the blood vessels in the neck.”
Scans showed that the spike had missed major vessels. “You couldn’t draw it up any better,” said Ebersole. “It was one in a million for it to pass 5 or 6 inches through the front of the face to the back and not have hit these things.”
Here’s a video of Ebersole discussing the operation:
The surgery was further complicated by the square shape of the skewer, but the team was able to pull it out without causing any other damage.
Ebersole estimated about a hundred people were involved in saving Cunningham. He expects the boy will have a complete or near-complete recovery.
Cunnigham’s family set up a GoFoundMe to help pay medical costs.
[Kansas City Star]