Pencil pierced toddler's eye socket and entered brain
A two-year-old girl from Bath has made a full recovery after falling on to a pencil that pierced her eye socket and entered her brain.
Wren Bowell was taken to hospital where surgeons operated for four hours to remove the pencil.
Ian Pople, the consultant neurosurgeon who operated on her, said people who suffered similar injuries had died or suffered permanent brain damage.
Surgeons at Frenchay Hospital said Wren had been "extremely lucky".
Wren, from Peasedown St John, was getting ready for bed at home when she fell over and landed on the pencil she was carrying.
It narrowly missed her eyeball, before lodging 1.5in (3.8cm) into the front lobe of her brain just a millimetre away from a major blood vessel.
"We had to open up the skull first of all to get inside and then we removed bits of fractured bone to be able to pull out the pencil from the brain," said Mr Bowell.
"The pencil had become jammed in by the fractured bits of bone.
"She is extremely lucky and we are very pleased that she has made such an excellent recovery."
The incident happened in March and Wren was released from hospital in April.