The 17-month-old daughter of a North Carolina parenting columnist is expected to recover after her 3-year-old brother shot her with his father’s gun.

Cleveland County Sheriff’s Capt. Joel Shores said that 911 dispatchers received reports that a child had suffered a gunshot wound at around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, according to the Gaston Gazette.

ADVERTISEMENT

Justin Carper, who is a youth church leader and writes an unpaid parenting column for the Shelby Star, said that he never imagined that his son could have climbed on a stool and and then taken the gun from a “secret compartment” on top of his dresser.

The mother drove the baby girl to Cleveland Regional Medical Center after calling 911. She was then flown to Levine Children’s Hospital.

“When I got the phone call, like any parent would, your heart sinks,” Carper said Thursday night. “We drove straight to the hospital.”

Carper called it a “miracle” when the girl was able to use the injured arm to feed herself in the hospital later that night.

“It went through the top of her shoulder,” he explained to the Gaston Gazette. “She was feeding herself using that shoulder, using that arm. The bullet went straight through. You wouldn’t even know. Doctor after doctor have told us that there’s nowhere else the bullet could have gone that would have ended up with this story.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“My mind is pretty much blown,” Carper added.

As of Friday, no charges had been filed against the father.

“We’re compiling the case and will present the case to the D.A. to determine if any charges will be filed for failure to secure a firearm,” Sheriff’s Capt. Shores noted.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Regardless of the outcome, the parents have been punished more than any criminal justice system can do to them by this happening.”

Watch this video from WSOC, broadcast Feb. 6, 2014.

ADVERTISEMENT

(h/t: Freak Out Nation)