New York boy, Charlie DeFraia, nearly died after a metal straw impaled his tongue while sipping on a cup of yogurt in June

A New York boy nearly died after a metal straw impaled his tongue while sipping on a cup of yogurt in June.

The incident occurred in East Moriches, Long Island, when Charlie DeFraia,4, was sipping on yogurt and fell off a porch after losing his balance. The straw went through his tongue and throat, puncturing his carotid artery. The carotid artery is a major artery that supplies oxygen and blood to the brain, but the injury didn’t leave an external wound.

Defraia’s father, Charles, an internal medicine doctor, knew his son was in danger after profusely bleeding from the mouth. ‘It was evident that he was losing a serious amount of blood, and he actually stopped breathing on me a couple of times. I had to protect his airway, and that’s all I could do at that point,’ he explained.