86 y/o man gets impaled in the head with pruning shears

Some of you on the board know that I am a paramedic, and I am fascinated by odd medical stories. I came across this story of this man who was pruning around his house and he fell and impaled himself with his pruning shears. The man luckily survived the accident and he told his story to the press. For those of you that are squemish by stories like this do not click on the link for the story and do not scroll down further since i will be posting some quotes from the article. For others who are curious and want to read about this man and his miraculous survival click the link below.

www.ems1.com...

Leroy Luetscher could feel the pruning shears jutting from his face as he tried to determine just what had happened to him after trimming the plants in his backyard and then falling face-first.At 86, Luetscher was covered in blood and in more pain than he'd ever felt in his life. One of the shears' handles had gone into his right eye socket and halfway into his head. Coping with excruciating pain that he believes kept him conscious, Luetscher managed to put his T-shirt over the wound to stanch the bleeding and beckon his longtime live-in girlfriend, who called 911.

Luetscher, a Wisconsin native, has made a remarkable recovery since the July 30 accident. He still has slight swelling in his eyelids and minor double vision, but is otherwise OK.

He said he's not sure he'll be doing much more gardening in the future.

Stories of survival like this are so incredible in my opinion. When it comes to impalings like this, the margin of error from life and death are literally millimeters.

I am glad he survived and I hope is able to make a good recovery and have as normal of a life as he can.

Yeah, I saw this a few days back and its one of those "how on earth is that even possible!?!?" moments...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ab846aacf61a.jpg[/atsimg]

Like the more famous Phineas Gage, its puzzling how some people can sustain big injuries and still survive, yet others fall over dead at the slightest tap.

reply to post by alfa1


I see someone beat me to mentioning Phineas Gage.

It's amazing what the human body is capable of surviving, sometimes hehe. And, at 86 years old too.
The thing with Gage was that he had a completely different personality after the accident. I've always wondered what that would be like. I don't want to ever find out though.

That has to be so painful...

reply to post by lcbjr1979


And here is the link to those that are morbidly curious:
gawker.com...

Enjoy!

Edit~The link has pictures, and a local news video. WARNING! Images may be graphic.

reply to post by lcbjr1979


Wow! I wish I could be this lucky.
I would probably end up choking to death on a fly.

I guess he wasn't "sheer" out of luck.
He really kept an eye on what he was doing.

This is the third thread I have seen involving "impaled with pruning sheers".

Are they all the same guy or is this World-wide impale yourself with pruning sheers month?

It is scary nonetheless. These people are the reason my job as a safety committee chairman is just getting out of hand. You guys have no idea.