FROM an early age, most children are given the message that sweets are bad for their teeth and their health.
But no one could ever have imagined the sticky situation one youngster found himself in because of a sugar-coated lolly.
And the upper school pupil might just have been put off from eating naughty treats once and for all after a freak accident led to a very lucky escape and a trip to hospital.
The 16-year-old was relaxing with friends at the Mildenhall College of Technology when a giant splintered lolly stick flew towards him, embedding itself in his neck.
Rather than trying to free the offending item, the savvy youngster immediately informed his teachers of the incident and was taken to West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds where, after a four-hour wait in accident and emergency, the stick was finally removed.
Last night, a spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service said the youngster had been “very lucky” that the stick – which had flown across the room with such force it pierced his neck and nearly came out the other side – had missed his windpipe or any other vital arteries.
The extraordinary event has left staff so shocked that letters have now been sent home to parents warning them of the dangers of the novelty lollies, which are believed to be around two feet long.
Headteacher Terry Lewis said the youngster, who had to have stitches to mend the wound caused by the wooden stick, was back at school and fully recovered from the shock of the accident.
“One of the sixth form boys had come into college after half term and had a novelty lolly on a stick,” said Mr Lewis. “He was waving it, when all of a sudden the stick broke and the sweet flew out of his hand, hitting another boy – who was sitting a couple of meters away – in the neck.
“The pupil was very lucky, because the lolly could have stuck anywhere and it could have been a lot more serious.
“We had already banned all sweets from being sold at school for health reasons. Obviously pupils bring things in that we are not in control of, but we do not want to see any more lollies in school.”
Ambulance service spokesman Matthew Ware said a first responder arrived at the school within six minutes of getting the emergency call, at just after 10.30am on Monday, followed closely by a land ambulance.
“Paramedics cut the lolly off the stick, leaving the actual stick in the youngster’s neck, and rushed him to hospital,” he said.
“The boy was very lucky, as the incident could have been a lot worse.”
