Big splinter pierces Md. boy's abdomen on slide

[August 19, 2010]  ROCKY RIDGE, Md. (AP) -- Firefighters say an 8-year-old boy was hospitalized after a nearly foot-long splinter pierced his lower abdomen as he went headfirst down a wooden slide at a Maryland park.

The accident happened on a 40-foot slide built in 1950 that is a local attraction at Mount Tabor Park in Rocky Ridge.

Second Assistant Fire Chief Luke Humerick (HYOOM'-er-ick) Jr. said Wednesday he used a utility knife to cut the splinter from the board on which the boy was pinned, halfway down the slide.

Humerick says the boy was in good spirits when he was taken Tuesday to a Washington hospital with the splinter still inside him. It was removed and now the boy is resting at home.

[Associated Press]

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