On 25/5, doctors at Viet Duc Friendship Hospital reported that the child's health had stabilized five days after surgery. The patient's left eye still showed mild swelling but maintained vision, though eye movement was not yet fully flexible. Medical staff continue to monitor cranial nerve function, vision, and prevent infection risks.

The incident occurred after school when the girl's parents took her for grilled skewers. While running with the skewer, she tripped, causing the sharp tip to penetrate the middle of her face. Her family immediately took her to a local hospital for first aid, then transferred her to a central hospital that same night. Upon admission, the foreign object was deeply embedded, extending from the base of her nose towards her left eye socket.

The biggest challenge for the emergency team was determining the foreign object's path and depth. The local hospital had cut off the external part of the bamboo skewer to facilitate transport, but this piece was lost. Consequently, doctors at the central hospital could not measure the length of the skewer embedded in the child's head.

Image of the meat skewer removed from the child's head. Photo: Hospital provided

Additionally, bamboo is almost entirely non-radiopaque on X-rays. Although multidisciplinary specialists performed multi-slice CT scans and 3D imaging, they could only see grilled meat fragments attached to the skewer, with the internal sharp tip appearing very faint.

Associate Professor Doctor Nguyen Hong Ha, Head of Maxillofacial - Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery, described the situation as complex. The skewer's tip was directed towards an area with vital structures: the eyeball, optic nerve, and anterior skull base. Doctors had to perform emergency surgery immediately to prevent sympathetic ophthalmia, which could lead to blindness in both eyes.

In the operating room, surgeons carefully followed the foreign object's path, exposing and controlling the damage one millimeter at a time before removing the entire bamboo skewer. There was no leakage of blood or cerebrospinal fluid, and the left eyeball maintained its tension.

Master Doctor Nguyen Thi Huong Giang noted the child was extremely fortunate. The sharpened bamboo skewer penetrated muscle layers, slid past the upper part of the eyeball, and stopped at the apex of the eye socket just before entering the skull. Unlike a blunt chopstick tip that might slide upon impact, a sharp skewer could easily puncture the eyeball.

Following this incident, doctors warned parents to never let children eat and run. Adults should remove food from skewers before giving it to children or cut off sharp tips. If a child is impaled by a sharp object, families should not attempt to remove it themselves. Instead, they must fixate the object to prevent movement and promptly transport the child to a specialized medical facility.

Le Nga