Boy, 14, survives after accidentally shooting himself through the head with a foot-long harpoon while fishing in Thailand: Spear rebounded off rock and went through his face, into his brain

A 14-year-old boy miraculously survived after accidentally shooting himself in the head with a foot-long harpoon in Thailand.

Chayathorn Thankrathok was hunting for fish with his friends in a canal in Nakhon Ratchasima province on Sunday.

But when he fired the harpoon into the water, it reportedly struck rocks below the surface and then ricocheted back toward his face, piercing his skull and lodged between his eyebrows.

The panicked youths called the rescue team, who found Chayathorn breathing heavily as he lay on the ground with the harpoon sticking out of his head.

The group rushed the boy to Chakkarat Hospital, where doctors then cut off part of the harpoon.

The fishing spear managed to get stuck between his eyebrows after bouncing off a rock

He and his friends were fishing in a canal in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand on Sunday

CT scans showed that the harpoon had ‘penetrated the skull deep into the brain’. Because the procedure was too complicated, local doctors had to transfer the teenager to the larger Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital, where there was better equipment.

Surgeons successfully removed the harpoon without having to saw open Chaiyathorn’s skull.

Despite this, he is still being monitored for possible infections or brain damage.

Chayathorn said, “I remember firing the harpoon at a fish and it hit me in the head. I was in pain and fell. I feel better now, but I won’t use the fishing harpoon again.’

Emergency services found him breathing heavily as he lay on the ground with the spear sticking out of his ear

A paramedic said: ‘The victim missed a fish and the spear bounced back towards his face. It was embedded in his skull, so he’s lucky to be alive.”

Surgeons at Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital successfully removed the harpoon without having to saw open Chaiyathorn’s skull

Chaiyathorn and his friends were fishing in a nearby canal when he suffered the shock injury

Chaisit Phupharat, head of Hook 31 rescue unit who responded to the incident, said: “The villagers said they often use harpoons instead of fishing rods when fishing.

‘The victim missed a fish and the spear bounced back towards his face. It was embedded in his skull, so he’s lucky to be alive.”

The shocking incident comes a year after a 30-year-old man was rushed to hospital after shooting himself in the face with his own harpoon in eastern Thailand’s Rayong province.

The sharp object had entered the left side of the man’s face, passed straight through his nose and exited through the other cheek.

Seeing him emerge from the water with the spear piercing his left cheek and going “all the way through his nose,” his shocked friends bundled him into the sidecar of their motorcycle and rushed him to an emergency center six miles away.

The harpoon reportedly ‘exploded’ sending the four-foot spear into his face at Thailand’s Mor Mui Reservoir

As the spear pierced his left cheek and went “all the way through his nose,” his shocked friends bundled him into the sidecar of their motorcycle and rushed him to an emergency center.

Friend Rung Arun told local media that he was given first aid upon arrival after “losing a lot of blood, becoming very pale and losing his pulse.”

A hospital spokesperson said: “On December 7, 2022 at 5:00 PM, Pluak Daeng District Rescue Center, Rayong, was informed that an injured person had been shot by a fishing gun.

“As the harpoon impaled the left cheek through the nose, the staff provided first aid before rushing him to Pluak Daeng Hospital.

‘It is thought that an underwater tree branch pulled the trigger. causing the gun to fire

‘Because this type of harpoon has no safety system.’