Tennessee was hit with multiple winter storms over the last week, brining with it inches of ice and snow accumulation not seen in the state for years. With classes canceled, many children take to the streets for their new favorite activity: sledding. While this can be a good time, it should be done safely; otherwise, you may end up severely injured like a teen who was impaled by a hay baler.
According to WKRN, Todd and Christie Reid said their teenage son, Sam, was sledding behind a four-wheeler in Arlington on Saturday (February 13) when the rope broke, sending him hurtling into a hay tractor.
"It had those two big spikes that stab the hay," said Todd Reid. "He slid into one of the spikes, and it went in his lower left abdomen, up through his chest, and then came outside the back right side of his neck."
In a stroke of luck, the accident happened at the home of a retired sheriff's deputy who knew not to move Sam until medics could get there and transport him to a hospital. Doctors were able to remove the four-foot spike in surgery, WKRN reports.
While Sam survived, he faced significant injuries, including six broken ribs and broken bones in his neck. He also lost half of his left lung. The spike had just missed his heart and spinal cord. Doctors are hopeful he could be released next week.
This wasn't the last sledding accident in the state. A 9-year-old boy tragically lost his life when the tube he was sledding on, that was being pulled by an ATV driven by his father, collided with a mailbox in Brentwood on Tuesday.
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