Doc dad heroically saves 4-yr-old son's life after he was IMPALED on metal straw that pierced his carotid
Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised
EAST MORICHES, NEW YORK: A four-year-old boy nearly escaped death after a metal straw punctured an artery in his neck leaving a lot of blood on his face. The child named Charlie DeFraia was sipping on yogurt through the straw on the porch at his home in East Moriches, New York when he fell off the porch making the metal straw pierce his tongue and throat.
The incident dates back to June 2022 when the boy’s carotid artery got punctured. For the uninitiated, the carotid artery is the one that supplies blood and oxygen to the brain. The boy's father Charles DeFraia, who is an internal medicine doctor, soon got into action after realizing that the injury could be life-threatening. The family then rushed to Stony Brook Children’s Hospital still not knowing where the bleeding was coming from or what caused it. A surgery was later performed on the four-year-old after doctors got to the root of it. Charlie was in a medically-induced coma for a week but was eventually released from the hospital.
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'I just saw blood on his face’
Charlie's mother Crystal DeFraia spoke about the horrific incident to publication Today revealing she ran to her son when she heard Charlie’s eight-year-old sister Madison scream. She told the publication, “I just saw blood on his face. I assumed he busted his nose or his lip, or bit his tongue. I never could have imagined that it was as serious as it was.” Crystal confessed that she thought she was watching her boy die before her very eyes.
Shedding light on the incident, Charlie's father Charles said, “It was evident that he was really losing a serious amount of blood, and he actually stopped breathing on me a couple times." The 38-year-old recalled, “I had to protect his airway, and that’s really all I could do at that point.”
According to Today, Charlie was discharged from Stony Brook Children’s Hospital on July 7. He will enter kindergarten on September 7 and celebrate his 5th birthday a week later. Speaking of his medication, the four-year-old takes aspirin and Plavix, a type of blood thinner, but otherwise leads a typical child’s life, his mom said.
Dr Richard Scriven, the chief of pediatric trauma at the hospital's trauma center, said that he'd been a surgeon for over 30 years and even he thought it was a lot of blood. He recalled that Charlie had “no measurable blood pressure.” Dr David Fiorella, as per the Daily Mail said that he will recreate a brand new carotid artery inside the old one. He added, “In doing that, it not only stopped the bleeding and sealed off the bleeding but also restored normal blood flow to the right side of Charlie's brain.”