Wichita — A 12-year-old Wichita boy is in protective custody after police say his father tried to remove a BB from his skull with a utility knife.
No charges have been filed, but The Wichita Eagle reports police want to know why the 57-year-old father waited a day before taking the boy to a hospital.
Lt. Doug Nolte, a police spokesman, says the boy accidentally shot himself in the head while playing with a BB gun Wednesday.
The father's attempt to dig the BB out with a knife was unsuccessful, and he took the boy to Via Christi Hospital about 24 hours later. Nolte says the injury was not life-threatening, and the boy was taken into protective custody after leaving the hospital.
Comments
toe 5 months, 3 weeks ago
The state must start to raise children. We cannot leave it up to the unwashed masses.
asixbury 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Are people really that stupid? Yes, yes they are. Seems stupid people are breeding faster--our country's doomed.
Starlight 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Dad just tied the hair in knots over the cut where the brick I tossed to my sister hit her in the head.
Pywacket 5 months, 3 weeks ago
That is so wrong... (snickering)
Starlight 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Yet so true. More on topic my cousin Kathy won't let me forget the time I shot her and two bb came out at once and lodged under her skin. Good thing Dad was an MD.
RoeDapple 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Stitches? Hell, if you gots the old Ka-bar sharpened up you can scrape all the hair away then duct tape it shut. (A 30 second bath in boilin' water and the needle nose pliers will pluck that pellet right outa there!) (Hot bath for the pliers, not the kid)
53girl 5 months, 3 weeks ago
too funny!
TheSychophant 5 months, 3 weeks ago
When are these idiots going to learn to use the right tool. The book says one should use an Exacto knife, and NOT a generic utility knife, to remove metal objects from a child's skull.
jjinks 5 months, 3 weeks ago
The man evidently doesn't know about, or can't afford, a good set of Leatherman pliers with all the needed tools for the operation
foodboy 5 months, 3 weeks ago
To quote Jeff Foxworthy: "You know you're a redneck if...
bearded_gnome 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Foodboy wrote: To quote Jeff Foxworthy: "You know you're a redneck if...
---dernit! ya beat me to it!
of course, I was wondering ... anesthesia? ... whiskey?
bearded_gnome 5 months, 3 weeks ago
^^ police want to know why the 57-year-old father waited a day before taking the boy to a hospital.
... "ocifir, I wuz waitin ta see if it wuz gonna cum out by itselv, or maybee jus go away. hes a biggin boy anyhou. hait ta botherin at tha horspital thar."
Glenn Reed 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Y'all're right this is hilarious.
Other people making stupid decisions about health care they may not be able to afford is really funny. The fact that the boy was taken into protective custody based on what very well might be an isolated incident (no indication otherwise in the article) adds to the amusement in a massive way.
Holding these folks up as objects of ridicule is exactly the right thing to do.
repaste 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Thank you GR
crazyks 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Not very well versed in the finer points of sarcasm, are you?
bearded_gnome 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Holding these folks up as objects of ridicule is exactly the right thing to do.
first, because ridicule is a means of social control as a way of preventing the unwanted harm to children.
second, if you had a little humor yourself, you would know that sad situations are often best dealt with via humor. humor is therapeutic.
note, we are poking fun at ourselves often in this.
now, Glenn, get a life!
Paul R. Getto 5 months, 3 weeks ago
When gossip, shunning and mobbing no longer worked, we invented religions to control larger crowds. Perhaps one of them can help this fellow. Hope the kid gets help as well, preferably in his Dad's home.
Glenn Reed 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Gnome,
I take it you've never actually looked at an emergency room bill. That's a number that can be scary to look at, and there's nothing in the article that would suggest that the parent or child was insured. There's nothing to suggest that they had the money lying around for it, either.
If they were to respond immediately by running to the emergency room, should the public pick up the bill for the treatment if they can't afford it? If not, is laughing at those whom you refuse to help really an admirable thing to do?
The other part of the story strikes me as an overreach in public authority. The article had nothing to suggest the injury was something other than an accident. Nor was any enduring risk defined in letting the child go home. Yet the child was taken into protective custody.
Should children be removed from a home because of a simple, one-time accident?
"note, we are poking fun at ourselves often in this." No. No you're not.
DillonBarnes 5 months, 3 weeks ago
I speculate the protective custody was not because of the BB accident, but rather the utility knife to the skull.
Kathy Getto 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Based on that logic, they should have taken me from my dad when he removed splinters and such with his very sharp pocket knife.
beatrice 5 months, 3 weeks ago
So what did you do to get splinters in your head?
Kathy Getto 5 months, 3 weeks ago
I will never tell. Too embarrasing.
Kathy Getto 5 months, 3 weeks ago
It involved a tree house, a dart gun(rubber-tipped) and a brother...........
beatrice 5 months, 3 weeks ago
A brother. I should have known.
Bunny_Hotcakes 5 months, 3 weeks ago
POOR PEOPLE LOL. I find it particularly ironic that someone who requires as much (taxpayer funded!) help from others as gnome is laughing at a kid whose dad took a freaking pocket knife to his head rather than take him to the ER.
Kathy Getto 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Foul, bunny. Gnome is one of the men in white hats. Disagree with him, but back off the childish name calling.
Bunny_Hotcakes 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Show me where I called him a name. His comments on this article are sarcastic and hurtful and his commenting history shows a charming combination of "internet tough guy" and just flatout garbage. I'm aware he has a long history commenting here. That doesn't make him a white hat. I'm sure he's nice enough in person but his commenting persona, such as it is, is repellant.
That 12 year old is somebody's baby, and now he's in pain and has been taken away from his parents due to a combination of tragic factors. But because of his father's bad decisions and apparent lack of adequate health care, this boy and his situation is to be mocked.
And now, due to that old saying about arguing on the internet, I'm done. But you all have fun. Just remember it's at a child's expense.
Kathy Getto 5 months, 3 weeks ago
. ".....someone who requires as much (taxpayer funded!) help from others as gnome..." I have no desire to argue, bunny, you could have easily said what you thought without this line, don't you think? I don't expect you to understand the white hat meaning and many posters are " repellant ". It' s healthier not trying to emulate their actions.
FloridaSunshine 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Bunny_Hotcakes, if you're going to be making comments on LJW, you must learn that one has to stay out of the line of fire from Kathy. She will mow you down for having an opinion of your own. There are several posters on LJW who will do this to you. BUT, there are a few who make visiting a delight. They make it worth your time.
(Just watch the reactions to this post, Bunny.)
tanzer 5 months, 3 weeks ago
I agree that this is an over reach of authority. Did they remove him because they can't afford medical care, he waited to get medical care for 24 hours (and how long of a wait is too long and during which hoursof the day?), because he used the wrong instrument to attempt to remove the BB, or because he attempted to remove it himself. I would really like to hear the rationale here.
fred_mertz 5 months, 3 weeks ago
I guess BBs to the head isn't covered under Obamacare?
beatrice 5 months, 3 weeks ago
It probably is, but it doesn't kick in until 2014.
littleb33 5 months, 3 weeks ago
I agree with you Glenn. I'm sure the BB was not in this kids Skull, but rather under the skin on his head. Anyone who has every shot a BB gun would find it Very hard to believe a BB could penetrate the skull. Given the size of the BB, a 1/4 cut into the skin would release the BB and heal in a few days. Definitely NOT the type of case our child protection resources should be wasted on given the real abuse happening every day in our community. Hopefully we are right and this child did not show any other signs of abuse.
rtwngr 5 months, 3 weeks ago
I'm going to pose a ridiculous but plausible theory here; Could this have been an attempted suicide? The reason I am asking this is because a 12 year old not smart enough to get away from an adult with a utility knife might not be smart enough to realize that a BB gun would not kill you? Ergo, the "ute", as Vinny would say, was taken into custody by child protective services.
LadyJ 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Link to story in the Wichita Eagle http://www.kansas.com/2012/11/30/2586050/boy-in-protective-custody-after.html#comment-724517814
weeslicket 5 months, 3 weeks ago
dad: you'll shoot your eye out! kid: no i won't. ...... dad: i guess you didn't shoot your eye out. now hold still.
OonlyBonly 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Now the main question, to me, is, "Was it in the skull or the scalp?" Big difference.
beatrice 5 months, 3 weeks ago
He didn't get the BB out, so my guess is it wasn't the scalp.
Kathy Getto 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Dull knife.
fred_mertz 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Dull family tree?
Paul R. Getto 5 months, 3 weeks ago
That, too.
jackbinkelman 5 months, 3 weeks ago
"Dull knife" The father?!
crazyks 5 months, 3 weeks ago
I find it difficult to believe a bb could penetrate the skull...and even if it did, I doubt that would be referred to as a "non life threatening" condition...
cg22165 5 months, 3 weeks ago
I'm thinking I've removed a lot of foreign objects with a sharp knife, tweezers, and sometimes needle nose pliers (from myself and others, mostly others as I've gotten older); not sure what would be special about a BB. Wondering if the fact that it was an object shot from something resembling a gun is what set off some individuals.
If it wasn't life threatening, but Dad failed in the attempt, my guess is that wormed under the skin, and over the bone. That would make extraction a little challenging. It would be hard to get to without doing some damage to the skin, which you would be trying to avoid.
eugunieum 5 months, 3 weeks ago
I have shoot through a metal roof on a barn with a BB gun. Some of the pump ups and spring piston BB guns are deadly. But seriously a utility knife? If it was just under the skin, I could see my parents trying to remove it, but that was a long time ago. In the skull is a little different, but I doubt the kid had a pump up or spring piston type. Hope he is ok.
cg22165 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Modern ones use compressed nitrogen to store the energy from the 'lever'. They are very efficient and some can push a pellet at .22-like velocities.
Starlight 5 months, 2 weeks ago
My Mac-1 steroided Benjamin Sheridan 5mm with 14 pumps would likely be deadly. Definitely not a toy.
Hope the boy learned the primary gun safety lesson, never point at anything you don't want to shoot!
bearded_gnome 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Okay Glenn, in case you don't know it, it's still the law that hospitals are required to treat the indigent.
clearly this is a case of dad's stupidity.
and bunny, I love you too. you need to check your humor detector dear.
it's pretty clear the kid wasn't in any mortal danger by the article. just the dad's own dumbth.
Glenn Reed 5 months, 3 weeks ago
It always strikes me as odd when someone suggests an emergency room's obligation somehow replaces health insurance, or removes the consideration of cost from such visits.
bearded_gnome 5 months, 3 weeks ago
OonlyBonly 33 minutes ago
Now the main question, to me, is, "Was it in the skull or the scalp?" Big difference.
---ditto. if had penetrated the skull I think it'd meant a life threatening emergency.
bearded_gnome 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Thanks Valkyrie, that's nice of you.
Kathy Getto 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Welcome. Immaturity is irritating. Some days more than others. :-)
FloridaSunshine 5 months, 3 weeks ago
You got that right, honey!! Condescension is even more irritating.
Paul R. Getto 5 months, 2 weeks ago
.
Kathy Getto 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Many of the faults you see in others, dear reader, are your own nature reflected in them.
Mevlana Rumi (1207 - 1273)
bearded_gnome 5 months, 3 weeks ago
and regarding seeing humor in this situation, look at the comments under the Wichita Eagle's article. you'll see some there too.
weeslicket 1 hour, 1 minute ago
dad: you'll shoot your eye out! kid: no i won't. ...... dad: i guess you didn't shoot your eye out. now hold still.
=very funny. for we are all told, "you'll put your eye out" etc." lol.
beatrice 5 months, 3 weeks ago
What was the child thinking, playing with a BB gun when a perfectly good utility knife was available?
deec 5 months, 3 weeks ago
he didn't want to bring a utility knife to a BB gun fight.
bearded_gnome 5 months, 3 weeks ago
^^What was the child thinking, playing with a BB gun when a perfectly good utility knife was available?
now Bea, you better cut it out!
bearded_gnome 5 months, 3 weeks ago
the dad's failure to remove the object does not mean it was necessarily in the skull, it may only reflect the capabilities of the dad.... or the aim of the knife in his hand. neither article indicates dad's blood alcohol level.
*not Bea's dull knife,
but a *dull dad!
LadyJ 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Reminds me of when I was a kid. Evidently going to the dentist was not in the budget. We were given a shot glass of whiskey and told to put the liquid in our mouth and hold it over our tooth for a minute. Then we either spit it out or swallowed it. Wouldn't get away with that now.
RoeDapple 5 months, 3 weeks ago
My brother shot my first BB gun at a board leaning against a tree. (I was 11, he was 7) It ricocheted back and lodged into the skin above his eyebrow. You can guess how that was compared to "A Christmas Story".
beatrice 5 months, 3 weeks ago
From what I can tell, the odds of a child with a BB gun shooting himself is about 1 in 2. If a brother is involved, it is 1 in 1.25.
MacHeath 5 months, 3 weeks ago
amazing
MacHeath 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Maybe he fished around some, and decided it wasn't there. If he had an electric drill, and a hole cutter...
yourworstnightmare 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Let natural selection run its course. Modern medicine is making us weak and dumb as a species.
MasterOfSparks 5 months, 3 weeks ago
It is a HUGE and probably unjustified leap of faith to assume that an emergency ward would have done any better than the father did. At least a third of all doctors are little more than quacks.
A few years ago I got a metal splinter in my foot. I sometimes work with sheet metal in my garage. It was just a little thing but it made it very difficult to walk. Being a diabetic I have had it pounded into my head that any injury to my feet must receive proper care because even little things can turn into big things requiring an amputation. I couldn't twist my leg enough to get the splinter out myself and my wife is very clumsy bless her heat. I didn't have anyone else I could ask but I do have good insurance. So I went to the local urgency care.
The doctor had me lay on my stomach while she took a scalpel and attempted to cut the splinter out. Yes, a SCALPEL! And notice that I said CUT not dig. All I really needed was a nice old granny lady with a sewing needle and a match but nooooo! By the time she was done torturing me she had created a 1" wound a half inch deep and pushed the metal splinter so deep into my foot that she was sending me to X ray to see if they could find it, Which they didn't.
HELPFUL HINT: Some while later my wife also got a metal splinter in her foot. I got an idea that worked out very well. I took a small but VERY powerful magnet and rubbed it over and over on the area where the metal splinter was and managed to work it out the opening where it had entered. No cost and minimal discomfort. A break thru in medical science!
MOS
Paul R. Getto 5 months, 3 weeks ago
It's often a judgement call, but when I worked in the emergency room years ago some of the services were wasted. There are also hypochondriacs and those who feel better with a $300 band-aide.
bearded_gnome 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Autie, if you document you're indigent, hospitals, most with emergency departments receive funds they're specifically supposed to use for treating the indigent.
yes it's controversial, most often in this country nowadays those funds go to treat illegal aliens.
bearded_gnome 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Right on Mos and Roe.
when I was a teen, I was digging a deep ditch with little brother. he proceeded to sink his pickax into my arm, next to my arm, very close to the elbow narrowly missing blood vessels.
no, this was not kansas (look at my user profile) but we were about 20 minutes from a hospital.
I did not have a "dull knife dad," and instead he knew what to do. it was a saturday, so even the nearby doc's office was closed.
eventually I got medical attention, but dad knowing what to do was what mattered.
it's hard to find that scar on my arm today.
bearded_gnome 5 months, 3 weeks ago
when I read the Wichita Eagle's page, I saw in the comments the humor, some concern for the boy and the family, but only here in lawrence do we see the humor impaired politically correct humor police.
antonioandolini 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Obamacare in the future will be considered genius. Individuals without the income to afford medical treatment will be able to be cared for without fear of excessive bills. Some find it humourous that a person had to take someone to the hospital for a botched up at home surgery. Unfortunately, the Republicans are preventing opportunities for reduced health care because of principle instead of the current situation of the economy driven by them!
bearded_gnome 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Antonio, your comment doesn't make sense RE the republicans.
and, that's not why the humor.
because of the payment structures and the senseless regulations, obamacare will reduce the number of doctors, and reduce the time docs spend with patients. not good.
obamacare is not insurance, it is another entitlement, one we cannot afford. it supposedly makes healthcare more affordable by taxing medical devices, raising the prices on everything from wheelchairs to tongue depressors to iron lungs. insane.
because of the long list of mandates in it, it is now vastly increasing the cost of private health insurance, as it was apparently designed to do.
misplacedcheesehead 5 months, 2 weeks ago
I believe the dad in this case is a moron. Taking the kid to a dr immediately would have been the rational, responsible, and safest thing to do. Unless the dad happens to be a physician himself, he was putting his child at risk by trying to remove it himself.
I do have empathy IF the dad was reluctant to seek medical care due to lack of health care coverage. But, an emergency is an emergency, and the child's well-being comes first. Yes, I can see a person being scared of the cost of an e.r. visit, but what is that compared to the kind of trauma they are experiencing now- was it really worth it? I suspect this bozo was just too bullheaded and/or lazy to take the child to the dr.
bethlang1998 5 months, 2 weeks ago
I could see trying to get a BB out yourself, I would probably try, too, but I don't think I'd wait 24-hours before going to the hospital if I couldn't get it out. Absent signs of other abuse, this really does seem like over-reacting.
LadyJ 5 months, 2 weeks ago
Maybe this, from the Wichita paper, will put a different perspective on the story. "Several adults live in the same home as the boy, including the father. Investigators want to know why the injury was not reported right away."
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