VANCOUVER, Wash. — The knife spiraled in the air toward Tyler Hemmert’s head.
Seated at a picnic table, the Vancouver 11-year-old lurched forward to dodge it.
That’s when he felt pressure just above his ear, reached up and felt the handle of the butter knife — stuck 4 inches between his skin and his skull.
Hemmert was rushed Sunday to Southwest Washington Medical Center, where doctors quickly removed the knife, which grazed his skull, but didn’t actually pierce it.
He received five stitches, a day off school Monday and a whole lot of attention from friends and local media.
Miraculously, though, the Discovery Middle School sixth-grader doesn’t have any long-term injuries or much residual pain.
“You know when you get hit by a rock and it leaves a welt?” he said. “That’s how it felt.”
The knife-throwing was the result of what started as a verbal altercation at Fruit Valley Park among a group of kids. Just before 10 a.m., another 11-year-old, about 20 feet away from Hemmert, got angry and threw the knife.
Hemmert’s friend dodged the blade, but Hemmert couldn’t. Within minutes, Hemmert ran to a neighbor’s house. The neighbor called 911 and Hemmert’s dad, Brian, who was at home enjoying breakfast and a cup of coffee.
Brian Hemmert ran to the neighbor’s house and accompanied his son in the ambulance. At the time, the knife was still embedded in his son’s head. “I wanted to pull it out, but I knew better,” Hemmert said. “It’s just gut-wrenching to see a knife sticking from your baby.”
On the way to the hospital, Tyler stayed calm.
“I just thought, ‘Well it didn’t hurt that bad, so it can’t be that bad,’ ” he said.
After an exam, doctors simply pulled out the knife and sutured the wound.
Those five stitches now symbolize Hemmert’s greatest war story, the 11-year-old said. He’s excited to get back to school and share it with friends.
“It’s pretty cool because it wasn’t that bad of an injury and it’s a nice story to tell,” Hemmert said.
Meanwhile, Vancouver police officers interviewed the alleged knife-thrower, and forwarded reports to juvenile prosecutors for consideration of charges, said Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp.
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