Teenager survives being shot through head with spear

A teenager from Florida has survived after being shot through the head with a spear. Yasser Lopez, 16, was said to be extremely lucky to survive after his friend accidentally fired a spear-gun into his forehead as it was being loaded. The force of the impact was said to be so strong that it knocked him into the lake where the two teenagers had been fishing.



Lopez was airlifted to Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital where doctors were only able to X-ray him after sawing off part of the spear so he could fit into the scanner. Miraculously, the three-inch spear went straight through his skull, narrowly missing his right eye and perforating the right side of his brain.

Neurosurgeon Dr Ross Bullock said Lopez was hugely fortunate that the spear missed every major blood vessel in his brain and did not pierce the left hand side, sparing his speech. After discovering in the X-ray that the part of the spear in Mr Lopez's head was a screw tip, doctors managed to delicately remove it without damaging his brain.


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"It was possible for us to figure out a strategy during the operation to be able to unscrew the tip of the spear, instead of having to get this whole spear dragged out through his brain," Dr Bullock said. Lopez was alert and speaking to paramedics when he arrived at the hospital, giving doctors confidence that he would survive. As he cannot remember the incident, doctors suspect Lopez is suffering from post-traumatic amnesia. Although he currently has trouble using the left hand side of his body, he has been moved out of intensive care, with doctors expecting him to make a full recovery.