Although this medical team had seen many injuries from straws, they had not seen one do this kind of damage.
Dr. Scriven explained, “We’ve seen dozens of kids with straw perforations in the back of the mouth, but never before had one penetrated the carotid artery. This was a first.”
In order to avoid a stroke and restore the flow of blood to Charlie’s brain, the medical team worked quickly to repair his artery.
Director of pediatric neurosurgery at Stony Brook, Dr. David Chesler explained, “The injury was very high up near Charlie’s skull base, making it too risky to approach surgically.”
Chesler called in the director of Stony Brook Cerebrovascular Center, Dr. David Fiorella to help. Together, the trauma specialists used telescoping stents to open a channel of blood flow and reconstruct the artery. These efforts to save the boy who was stabbed in the throat by a metal straw were successful. They induced a coma, put him on a ventilator, and waited for days.
Recalling her time waiting in the hospital, Crystal shared, “I felt like a shell of a human.”
The doctors weren’t sure whether Charlie would have lost some of his ability to talk or even use the bathroom.
But on June 27, Charlie woke up and said to his mom, “Mom, can I have a fruit snack?”
The 4-year-old boy remained in the hospital for a week more, and although he had some work to do to rehabilitate some fine motor skills and speech, his parents were thankful to have their Charlie back.
Today, Charlie has started kindergarten, and he’s healed up well. According to his mom, the evidence of his injury consists of a slight lisp because of how the straw damaged his tongue, and a scar on his thigh, where the medical team entered the body to repair the artery.
Even though the medical team was successful in saving the 4-year-old boy, it wasn’t without diligent effort and serious expertise. Speaking of his team, Fiorella said, “We are so proud of our multi-disciplinary team’s unique expertise and experience that allow patients like young Charlie get back to his life again.”
Some might consider Charlie’s life after he was stabbed in the throat by a metal straw is a miracle by God.
“A lot of things went into Charlie’s favor that day,” Charles told reporters. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t look at him flabbergasted that he’s alive.”
Are Metal Straws Safe?
Medical professionals warn that medical straws are not safe for children, due to the many injuries they’ve caused.
Also, in 2016, there had been so many reports of children cutting their mouths on metal straws that Starbucks recalled millions of them.
Charlie’s doctor, Richard Scriven told reporters, “For children, metal straws are not the way to go.”
But metal straws aren’t only a risk to children.
In 2019, one woman from Britain died after she was impaled through the eye by a straw.
This Facebook post tells the whole story:
While some wonder if the warning about metal straws is just a reaction to a freak accident, others have taken heed.
One Facebook user responded to the woman’s accident saying, “Can there possibly be a warning for every bazaar accident that ever happens? No, things happen unexpectedly. Be ready always to meet the Lord!”
While another user responded, “As long as I don’t put my plastic straws in the ocean I’m gonna keep using them.”
David Hennessee said, “Maybe plastic straws aren’t so bad after all.”
What do you think?