Stick pierces man's neck

It was the freak accident that so nearly proved fatal for a father from Peterborough.

Adrian Wood was out cycling with a friend when he fell, impaling his neck on a foot-long branch. The stick passed through a vein, and came within millimetres of his carotid artery.

A man from Peterborough is recovering in hospital following a freak accident that nearly proved fatal.

Adrian Wood was out cycling with a friend when he fell, impaling his neck on a foot-long branch. The stick passed through a vein, and came within millimetres of his carotid artery.

While his cycling buddy ran ahead to raise the alarm Adrian staggered along a footpath for around half a mile with the branch still protruding from his neck. Interestingly he says it did not hurt at that time but the feeling of the branch bouncing on his shoulder was sickening.

Adrian was rushed to Peterborough Hospital and underwent two operations totalling eleven hours and will make a full recovery, but the surgeons who treated him say he's a lucky man.