WREN Bowell is 2. At her home in Peasedown St John, Somerset, she was racing to show her parents a picture she had just drawn. She tripped over a stair gate. The pencil she was holding – wince now – entered her eye. The pencil passed though her skull and went 1 1/2in into the frontal lobe of her brain.

Wisely, her parents did not fiddle with the pencil. They called 999. After an operation lasting four hours at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol, Wren is recovered.

Medics removed a section of Wren’s skull with the pencil. Plastic plates and biodegradable screws repaired the skull.

Hideous stuff. Add it to the gallery:

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Handout x-ray from the Birmingham Childrens Hospital of Siamese twin Eman and Sanchia Mowatt who were born conjoined, the xray shows the twins joined at the back. * Eman and Sanchia are now in intensive care at the city's Diana, Princess of Wales Children's Hospital following the separation operation on Monday.