Boy’s Heart, Jugular Pierced in Fall Onto Rod--but He Lives

An 8-year-old boy was listed in critical condition today after surgeons unscrewed a steel rod that pierced his body when he fell from a roof.

“He probably just thinks this is kind of a slight inconvenience in his life,” trauma surgeon Dr. Michael Esser said of Justin Stiner, who asked for some ice and wanted to play Nintendo on Tuesday after waking up from surgery.

The 4-foot-long, 1/2-inch-thick threaded bar used to reinforce concrete was literally unscrewed from the boy’s neck and torso Monday in a 2 1/2-hour operation at University Medical Center. Eighteen inches of the rod had penetrated his body.

Esser said that the heart wounds should heal fully and that, although the boy’s severed jugular vein was tied off, other veins can provide the needed circulation. The jugular vein carries blood back from the head to the heart.

The 4-foot-10, 86-pound third-grader from Sierra Vista fell onto the rod while playing with friends on the roof of a house Monday morning. He was suspended two feet off the ground for about 20 minutes, alert the whole time, while paramedics cut the rod, which pierced him just below the breastbone.

Justin, who was taken the 80 miles from Sierra Vista to Tucson by helicopter, neither panicked nor screamed, and on arrival “wanted to know if I was going to remove it. He was very cooperative,” Dr. Phillip Richemont said.

Richemont said surgeons were stunned to find that the rod had pierced the heart in two places and divided the jugular vein. “But yet it didn’t bleed. It’s amazing,” Richemont said.

During the operation, the heart seemingly “contracted down between the threads,” cutting off bleeding, Richemont said.