Thumbs up as boy shot in head leaves hospital

SCHOOLBOY Darragh Somers who survived a .22 bullet wound to the head left hospital yesterday with a thumbs-up sign.

Two months after being hit and left critically ill on a life support machine, Darragh, aged five, returned home to Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh. He was taken out in a wheelchair by his parents who once feared he might not pull through.

Outside the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, his father Gerald said: “He‘s baffled everyone - the surgeons, the doctors, the nurses, his mum and dad, everyone. At the start we thought he might not make it, but there was another force at work. I cannot understand it. It’s beyond my comprehension.”

Darragh was accidentally shot in the head by a stray bullet as he played outside his school on April 22.

But even though police carried out ballistic tests on over 50 weapons which they seized from owners in the area, they have be unable to identify the hunter who pulled the trigger while shooting vermin on adjoining fields.

But with his parents Jeannine and Gerald at his bedside and surrounded by 200 get well cards, he made an astonishing recovery after two lengthy operations, and plans to be back at Mullinaskea Primary School in September.

Chief Inspector Nigel Kyle who is heading up the police investigation said: “It’s truly remarkable. Nobody thought he could make this sort of recovery. It really is a miracle. As a policeman for 26 years, I have never seen anything like it.”

More forensic tests are to be carried out on the rifles, all legally held by farmers and sportsmen in the area in a bid to trace the man who fired the shot.

Inspector Kyle said: “One would have imagined he’d have owned up by now, but as he’s left it this late he’ll obviously find it increasingly difficult to come forward. We’ll not be giving up though.”

A special family party will be held for Darragh once he’s fit enough.

His father, an unemployed factory worker who is recovering from testicular cancer, added: “Initially we were very, very concerned, but after the first few days we grew more hopeful, although we were worried about the final outcome. That was scary. But look at him today...it is fantastic.”