Arizona: Man, 86, impaled on pruning shears

A man who accidentally impaled himself on pruning shears is lucky to be alive. Leroy Luetscher, 86, was working in his garden in Green Valley, Arizona, when he dropped the shears. As he went to pick them up, he lost his balance and fell face down on the handle. It penetrated his eye socket and went into his neck, coming to rest on the external carotid artery.

The pensioner was taken to hospital with half the shears left in his head and the other half sticking out. Surgeons at the University of Arizona Medical Center managed to removed the cutters and rebuild his orbital floor with metal mesh, thereby saving his eye.