28/10/2025
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A 11-year-old girl was hospitalized and underwent urgent surgery after she tripped and landed on a sharpened pencil, which pierced her left common carotid artery.
During recess, she slipped and fell onto the pencil, which remained protruding from her left neck. Initially, she was taken to a regional health center but was urgently transferred by ambulance to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, with the pencil still lodged in her neck.
Fortunately, there was no bleeding from the wound, and her vital signs were normal. However, the pencil was pulsating with her pulse, raising concerns among the doctors. They ordered a neck CT angiogram to investigate the situation inside her neck and discovered that the pencil was lodged in her left common carotid artery, causing a complete blockage.
The surgeons then proceeded to the operating room to examine the wound. Once inside, they identified and tagged the artery using a vessel loop, exposing the pencil (as shown in the second photo). After administering heparin (an anticoagulant), the doctors clamped her arteries, removed the pencil, and finally closed the wound.
She made a swift recovery in the hospital and was discharged a few days later, accompanied by painkillers to manage the immense pain she would have experienced after having her neck impaled with a 2B pencil.
She continued to recover and underwent ultrasounds six weeks later, then every six months for a year, and finally annually for two years. At three years, her ultrasound revealed no signs of any abnormalities, and she is generally quite healthy, albeit a bit cautious about art class or any activities involving pencils.
