11-year-old Missouri boy credits ‘Black Panther’ and Jesus for saving his life. Here’s why

Feb 28, 2019

“Black Panther” scored big at the Oscars this week, taking the award for best original score, best production design and best costume design categories.

The film is also being praised this week for saving the life of a young Missouri boy after he fell from a treehouse and landed face-first on a meat skewer, according to Fox News.

What happened: Back in September, Xavier Cunningham was playing in a treehouse with some friends at his home in Harrisonville, Missouri, when he was attacked by a swarm of wasps, according to Fox News.

• Cunningham attempted to escape and fell 4 feet from the treehouse ladder onto a foot-long meat skewer that went through his face and out the back of his skull, according to People magazine.
• Gabrielle Miller, Cunningham’s mother, told CBN, “He had this metal-looking rod, what I thought was an arrow, coming out of his cheek.”

Cunningham was rushed to the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, where doctors were shocked to find that the skewer had barely missed the boy’s nerves, brain stem and other vital organs, according to the Kansas City Star.

Koji Ebersole, director of endovascular neurosurgery at the University of Kansas Health System, told the Kansas City Star, “I have not seen anything passed to that depth in a situation that was survivable, let alone one where we think the recovery will be near complete if not complete.”

Cunningham credits ‘Black Panther’ and Jesus for survival

When asked why he didn’t attempt to remove the skewer from his face, Cunningham cited “Black Panther,” according to Fox News.

In the climactic battle of “Black Panther,” Michael B. Jordan’s character Erik Killmonger dies after being stabbed in the chest with a dagger and removing it.

“I watched ‘Black Panther,’” Cunningham said, according to Fox News. “At the end of it, how he just takes it out and dies — so I was like, ‘Nope!'”

When asked ahead of the Oscars what message he’d like to convey to the cast, Cunningham told CBN, “Well, I’ll just say I’m glad they put it (the scene) in there because otherwise, I probably would have pulled it out.”

Cunningham also credits his faith in Jesus Christ for helping him survive the injury, Fox News reported.

“He gave his life for us,” he told CBN. “And after this, it’s just like He really truly is the God almighty.”

In the five months since his fall, Cunningham’s scars are barely noticeable and he’s fully recovered, according to CBN.

“He could’ve bled to death in that field, covered in yellow jackets,” Xavier’s father told FOX 4 in September. “Only God could have directed things to happen in a way that would save him like this. … It really was a miracle.”