Dez Heal, 13, of Lynchburg, Va., was playing a Ninja game with his friends when a bamboo stick which he had decided to put in the back of my shirt, impaled his neck.

I guess when he jumped, the stick must have went forward, Nicholas Blencowe, Dez's friend and Ninja partner, told ABC affiliate WSET-TV. And when he hit the ground, the stick went in his neck.

Dez’s father called 911 and he was immediately rushed to the hospital.

In such cases, the physicians in the emergency room don’t immediately extract the piercing object; they take time to appraise the patient.

It sounds counterintuitive, but it's important to leave the object in place, Dr. Abi Mehrotra, assistant medical director at the University of North Carolina Department of Emergency Medicine, told ABC News.

Dr. Paul Pepe, chairman of emergency medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, agreed. You don't pull it out. You do nothing, he told ABC News, explaining how tests must be done to see what nerves and arteries could be further damaged by hasty removal of the object.

Medicine