86-year-old Leroy Luetscher said he had just finished trimming plants in his backyard when he lost his balance and fell on the pruning shears. The tool went into his right eye socket and down into his neck, resting against the carotid artery. Half the shears were left in his head pushing up against his eye, while the other half was sticking out.
Luetscher said he put his hand to his face and realized the shears had gone into his eye. "I didn't know if my eyeball was still there or what," he said. "I never had pain like that in all my life." Luetscher, whose face was gushing blood, was able to walk to the laundry room of his house and beckon his longtime live-in girlfriend, Arpy Williams, who called 911.
An ambulance rushed him to University Medical Center in Tucson, where a team of surgeons immediately took scans of his brain and came up with a plan to treat him. "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," surgeon Dr. Lynn Polonski said. "He's was very lucky that it missed all vital structures and we were basically able to put him back together."
Luetscher said he's not sure he'll be doing much more gardening in the future.
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