How Is He Still Alive?

The skewer that impaled Xavier Cunningham below his eye must have sliced into vital arteries. Which left doctors asking ...

- Bonnie Munday

The stainless steel skewer that Xavier Cunningham found in his backyard two Septembers ago was about a foot and a half long and the width of his pinkie. One end had four sharp prongs, and the other had a single point—it was the kind of rod used to cook rotisserie chicken over a grill. It also made the perfect spear, and Xavier and his friends Silas and Gavon, all ten years old, took turns seeing who could chuck it the farthest. When they got bored, they ditched the skewer near a neighbor’s tree house, sticking the four prongs in the ground as an anchor. They then climbed up the tree house’s ten-foot ladder.

Apparently, the boys hadn’t seen the large wasp nest wrapped around the back of the tree, for once they were in the hut they were under attack. The swarm was so aggressive that Silas kneeled in the corner and started praying.

“I’ll get my mom!” Xavier said as he descended the ladder. About halfway down, a wasp stung his left hand. Xavier swatted at it with his right, lost his balance, and fell, facedown. Before breaking his fall with his arms, he felt a sting just under his left eye. Was that a wasp? he wondered.

In fact, it was the skewer. About six inches of it was now buried in his head. Screaming, he got up and ran to his home, some 50 feet away.

Gabrielle Miller, 39, was upstairs folding laundry in the house she shared with her husband, Shannon Miller, and their four children. Shannon, a teacher, had taken two of their kids to an arcade, while Gabrielle, who manages a title-insurance business, stayed home with Xavier and his 14-year-old sister, Chayah. She heard her son screaming and thought, When will he grow out of this stuff?