Utah girl, 5, punctures throat after falling while brushing teeth
(Kennedy News & Media))
UTAH - A 5-year-old girl in Utah is recovering after she fell with a toothbrush in her mouth, which left a gaping hole in the back of her throat. The girl’s father, Mitchell Gravenmier, told news outlets that he was talking to his wife when he heard his daughter’s screams.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE BELOW
“Celeste was sitting on her bed bouncing up and down and I kept telling her to stop,” Gravenmier said, according to Kennedy News & Media. “The kids brush their teeth sitting there as it keeps them from running around. I turned around for a second to talk to my wife and when I turned back around, Celest was falling forward. She stood up screaming and I looked in her mouth and could see there was a bit of blood around it.”
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Gravenmier said that at first, he thought she might have bitten her lip, but when he looked into her mouth with a flashlight, he saw the inch-wide hole in the back of her throat. According to the news outlet, he rushed her to the hospital where she underwent emergency surgery to close the wound.
“She may have permanent speech problems and may need more surgeries in the future to help improve it,” Gravenmier said, in a Facebook post on his personal page.
Gravenmier said that while Celeste has returned to her “normal, happy self,” she still can’t use sippy cups or straws yet until the wound heals.
(Kennedy News & Media))
“We’re just glad it didn’t go down her throat,” he told Kennedy News & Media. “They said if it was any further to the sides, it could have severed a blood vessel and caused more significant bleeding.”
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Gravenmier invited his friends to share his Facebook post so that more parents recognize the importance of practicing safe brushing habits.
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“So always enforce not running or jumping around for your kiddlets [sic] when brushing or anything like that,” Gravenmier wrote, in his post.