'Pain was so bad I wasn't afraid to die': Pensioner impaled in eyeball by handle of garden shears after taking a tumble
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Miraculous: Leroy Luetscher has slight swelling in his eyelids but otherwise appears unscathed
A pensioner has told how he cheated death after being impaled through the eye by a pair of pruning shears.
Leroy Luetscher, 86, had finished trimming plants outside his home in Phoenix, Arizona, when he dropped the shears.
As he bent down to pick them up he lost his balance and fell face down directly on to the handle of the shears which penetrated his eye socket and went down into his neck.
Mr Luetscher said that, covered in blood and in tremendous pain, he reached up and felt the shears jutting from his face.
He said :'I didn't know if my eyeball was still there or what. The pain was so bad that I guess I wasn't afraid to die.
'If that instrument had gone in any direction different than it did, I would have bled right there to death.'
He managed to put his T-shirt over the wound to staunch the bleeding and was able to call his partner who contacted the emergency services.
After scanning his brain, surgeons discovered the handle had penetrated six inches into his head and was resting against the carotid artery in his neck.
Dr Julie Wynne, assistant professor in the University of Arizona Medical Center surgery team, said: 'You wouldn't believe your eyes. Half of the pruning shears was sticking out and the other half was in his head.'
Dr Lynn Polonski, clinical assistant professor of ophthalmology, said the team made incisions underneath Mr Luetscher's right upper lip and in his sinus wall, allowing them to loosen the handle of the shears with their fingers.
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ShareHe said: 'It was a bit overwhelming. It was wedged in there so tightly you could not move it. It was part of his face.
'We decided we could safely remove the pruning shears and are so happy that Mr Luetscher did not lose his eye or any vital structures.
Horrific: Mr Luetscher fell on the handle of the pruning shears which penetrated his eye socket and wedged six inches into his neck
Astonishing: The handle of the shears can be clearly seen penetrating Mr Luetscher's neck. Remarkably they missed any vital structures and surgeons were able to loosen them and pull them out
'Once we were able to loosen it up, it went fairly easily,' he said.
Doctors were able to save Mr Luetscher's eye by rebuilding his orbital floor with a titanium plate before putting him on antibiotics for 20 days to stave off infection.
Mr Luetscher said he is not sure he will be doing anymore gardening in future.
He said: 'I am so grateful to the doctors and staff at UMC.'
Close thing: The handle of the shears resting on the carotid artery. Surgeons said Mr Luetscher was lucky the shears didn't sever the artery
Dr Polonski said he had never seen anything like the injury in 13 years as a surgeon.and that Mr Luetscher was lucky the shears didn't rupture his eyeball, hit his brain or sever his carotid artery.
He said: 'You know, if it went a little bit in a different direction, it basically could have killed him or he could have had a stroke.
'He was very lucky that it missed all vital structures and we were basically able to put him back together.'
Mr Luetscher has some swelling in his upper and lower lids, as well as some double vision in the affected eye.
However, medics said he is expected to make a full recovery following the accident on July 30.
Recovery: Surgeons at the University of Arizona Medical Center say Mr Luetscher should regain his vision
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