Impaled Through Neck by Sapling

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 45, 24 February 1936, Page 6

Impaled Through Neck by Sapling

REMARKABLE MISHAP WHEN BOY FALLS FROM TREE. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Last Night. Falling over 12 iect from a wattle tree this morning, ,au eight-years-old boy, Patrick Hugh Kcauey, of Mount Eden, was impaled on a sapling which pierced his neck. The lad was playing with other children ou a property at the back of his homo and had climbed a tree. When the branch broke the other children were horrified to see their companion fall on to a sapling which was about * feet in height. Neighbours summoned by the children found the boy in a kneeling position with the small tree which had entered the left side of his neck, protruding for about (1 inches from the other side. The boy, who was semiconscious, was grasping the top of the sapling with one hand.

A saw was obtained and a resident cut through the tree about 3 feet below the point of entry. The lad was then taken to Auckland Hospital where a further length was cut from the sapling, leaving about 6 inches protruding from each side of the boys’ net ‘i<L. An operation was then performed, it being subsequently reported that the patient’s condition was very serious.