If you believe in miracles, meet Gus Deterding–a 9-year-old boy from Alexandria, Minnesota, who survived something no one thought was possible, according to an article on the KARE11.com news website. Back in March, Gus was helping his dad load the truck for a trip when he slipped on the ice while holding his youth bow and arrow. The arrow, tucked under his arm and pointed upward, pierced his face and went nearly straight through his brain. Initially, his parents thought it was a minor cut, but after vomiting and a return hospital visit, scans revealed the shocking truth: the arrow had missed major brain centers and arteries by mere millimeters. One doctor said that in 28 years, he’d never seen anything like it, and if he’d seen the scans first, he would have assumed the worst.
Instead, Gus walked out of the hospital and back into his childhood. Within weeks, he was back on the baseball field, hitting doubles and playing with his siblings like nothing had happened. His parents, Dave and Abby, call it a miracle, helped along, perhaps, by a chaplain’s unexpected prayer just hours before the accident. With a whisker biscuit’s whisker width between life and death, Gus’s story is terrifying and also hopeful. For now, the family is simply grateful to have their son alive and thriving. It is proof that sometimes, miracles really do strike close to home.
Feature photo credit: Abby Deterding
