Two-year-old Huang Zicheng’s father says he has no idea how or why the Chinese toddler thrust an entire adult-sized chopstick up his nose, penetrating nearly three inches into his brain.

The infant, from Wuhan in Hubei Province, was hospitalised after poking the stick so far up his nose it disappeared into his head, and the offending implement took brain surgeons four hours to remove.

The child is expected to make a full recovery.



Previous cases of chopstick brain impalement have often involved children running with the sticks, but the two-year-old’s father says he was doing some chores and looking the other way. The first thing he knew was hearing Huang scream.

The father says, “I turned around and was shocked to find that the long stick had gone into his head from his nose.”

At hospital CAT scans found that the chopstick had thrust nearly three inches into Huang’s brain but had not damaged any major nerves or arteries.