WARNING: Photo at bottom of story is graphic.
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (WGHP) — A horrific toothbrush accident left a 5-year-old girl with a gaping hole in the back of her throat, according to The Sun.
Mitchell Gravenmier said his daughter Celeste and her 2-year-old brother Matthew were sitting on a bed brushing their teeth.
“Celeste was sitting on her bed bouncing up and down and I kept telling her to stop,” Gravenmier told The Sun. “The kids brush their teeth sitting there as it keeps them from running around.
For just a second, he said he turned to speak with his wife. When he turned back, Celeste was already falling.
“She stood up screaming and I looked in her mouth and could see there was a bit of blood around it,” Gravenmier told the paper.
Initially assuming she bit her gums or lip, her dad pulled out a flashlight. That’s when he saw the hole, nearly an inch across, in the back of her throat.
At the hospital, a CT scan, fortunately, showed the brush did not damage or sever any blood vessels or arteries, but, nevertheless, Celeste would need emergency surgery.
“The surgery took about two and a half hours while they closed the wound,” Gavenmier told The Sun. “It’s a tricky place to reach.”
After a successful surgery, doctors put the young girl on a strict diet of soft food and liquids, and while doctors fear she could encounter speech problems later in life, that’s not stopping her from going back to being “her normal, happy self.”