Boy, two, DIES after his older brother accidentally shot him in the head with a BB gun, doctors reveal
- No other details were given about how the accident in San Diego happened
- It is only known that the infant was ‘inadvertently’ shot by his older sibling
- Medics said the unnamed boy ‘succumbed shortly after arrival to the hospital’
A two-year-old boy died after his brother accidentally shot him in the head with a BB gun, a case report has revealed.
No other details were given about how the accident happened – it is only known that the unnamed infant, from San Diego, was ‘inadvertently’ shot by his older sibling.
Paediatrics have now issued a warning over BB guns, following the tragic death that doctors published in a medical journal.
No other details were given about how the accident happened – it is only known that the unnamed infant, from San Diego, was ‘inadvertently’ shot by his older sibling (pictured, the BB gun pellet in his brain)
The pellet – most are just 6mm-wide – was lodged in his left frontal lobe, a region responsible for controlling language-related movement.
Medics said the boy underwent ‘multiple resuscitation attempts but succumbed shortly after arrival to the hospital’.
The neurological team who treated him, at the Rady Children’s Hospital, said he died from a diffuse traumatic brain injury.
Writing in The Journal of Paediatrics, Dr David Santiago-Dieppa and colleagues said injuries from nonpowder guns are ‘usually unintentional’.
They added that most injuries involving the weapons are also ‘suffered by white children’ – normally boys – and ’caused by a sibling’.
Figures suggest around 3.2million nonpowder guns, such as BB ones, are sold each year in the US.
In the UK, laws prohibit anyone under the age of 18 from buying a realistic imitation firearm.
Laws vary by state in the US. But in California, where this boy was from, it is illegal to sell air-type guns to under 18s.
Nonpowder guns are powered by compressed air or carbon dioxide, and some can fire at a rate of 1,200feet per second.
In comparison, 0.22-calibre handguns fire at a rate of 800-1,000 feet over the same time frame, the doctors wrote in the journal.
The team analysed a national database of injuries and found 162,000 cases of BB or pellet gun incidents, of which 62 per cent occurred in children.
They added: ‘None were fatal. Although several published studies have described NPG injuries, only a few have been fatal.’
