The accident occurred in Kien Giang Province last Saturday, and he was transferred to the neighboring Can Tho City for operation the same day.
The wooden stake measures 30 centimeters long and has a diameter of 5 centimeters.
It went 25 centimeters into his lower right chest, damaging his lung and liver, and broke one of his ribs.
It took eight doctors at Can Tho General Hospital four hours to remove the stake from his body and stitch his injured organs.
He woke up on Tuesday and is now in stable condition.
The wooden stake that gets stuck in the chest of the boy. Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Phong |
"The first thing that should be noticed in first aid for such a case is absolutely not to remove the object from the body because at this time that object plays a role in preventing bleeding," said Dr. Lieu Vinh Dat, deputy head of the hospital’s Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, where the boy was treated.
He recommended that in such a situation the victim should be brought to the nearest medical facility for first aid where medical workers will apply pressure to the wound, fix the object and transfer the patient to a specialized hospital for treatment as soon as possible.