A five-year-old boy was reportedly almost killed after a pencil impaled his chest and narrowly missed puncturing a major artery in his heart.

According to Asia Wire, the boy, whose name was not revealed, reportedly tripped while holding the pencil when he fell on it.

His parents rushed him to Lianjiang People’s Hospital near their home in South China’s Guangdong Province before medics advised that he be transferred to Central People’s Hospital of Zhanjiang.
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Once there, surgeons worked to safely remove the pencil, which was 2 inches away from causing a fatal injury.

Dai Ming, head of the department of cardiothoracic surgery, told Asia Wire that the tip of the pencil pierced the boy’s superior vena cava.

Ming said that the boy’s parents acted heroically in seeking help rather than attempting to remove the pencil at home.