Toddler whose brain was pierced by a pencil makes a full recovery

The father of a toddler who had a pencil pierce her eye socket and lodge in her brain said he was thankful the two-year-old had made a full recovery.

Wren Bowell, from Peasedown St John, was getting ready for bed when she fell on to the pencil she was carrying.

It narrowly missed her eyeball and lodged in her brain just a millimetre away from a major blood vessel.

Martyn Bowell, Wren's father, said he was "just thankful to have her here still".

Wren was at her home near Bath, last March, when the incident happened.

"She tripped and fell with the pencil and it went through her eye socket," said Mr Bowell.

"It missed her eye fortunately but it went up into her brain and obviously she screamed out and we called an ambulance."

The pencil lodged 1.5in (3.8cm) into the front lobe of the toddler's brain

"I was going to pull the pencil out, which I know now that you're not supposed to because it could have been a lot worse if I had done," said Mr Bowell.

"But thankfully Michelle [Wren's mother] was here and she kept me calm and said 'leave the pencil there and call an ambulance' and we'll wait and we did."

Wren was taken to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol where surgeons operated for four hours to remove it.

Mr Pople, the consultant neurosurgeon who operated on her, said it would have been "impossible" to remove the pencil without surgery.

"It had passed through the skull - fractured the skull - and little bits of fractured bone were holding the pencil inside," he said.

"So even if he'd tried to pull it out, it was just stuck rigid - that was one of the reasons why we had to open up the front of her skull and extricate it.

"But luckily the pencil only just reached the two big arteries right in the middle of the brain and hadn't penetrated them if they had - it would probably have been fatal.

"She was extremely lucky to get away with that without damage."

The incident happened in March and Wren was released from hospital in April.