A mum claims she could have died after kicking a wooden stake away from her pet goats – only to ironically end up impaled on it herself. Jackie Stride was checking on her pet goats who live in a paddock on her smallholding on 18 August when she saw part of a wooden chair that her husband had made for the goats had rotted away, leaving a large spike exposed.
Worried her mischievous goats, Crunchie, Goldilocks and Wispa, would jump on the chair and hurt themselves, Jackie tried to push the chair over so the spike was not upright. The chair was too heavy to be pushed by hand, so she began to use the sole of her foot to kick the stump onto its side.
Unfortunately, on her fourth attempt at kicking the broken chair, the mum-of-two slipped and went over the top of the spike with the back of her right leg coming down on top of it, landing on her back. The 54-year-old veterinary receptionist thought she had just caught her trousers on the spike, but as she tried to push herself up, she realised she had been impaled on it.
However not realising how deep the wound was, Jackie managed to walk back down to her house, making herself a cup of tea as she waited for her husband, David Stride, 69, to return from walking their dogs. She said as soon as he saw the wound he told her she needed to go to hospital right away, even taking a photo of the cut to show her the injury that was about 7cm above the back of her right knee.
After looking at the photo, Jackie suddenly became lightheaded and had to lie down for a few minutes before she was rushed to Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath. However before she left, she made sure her husband and their friend cut off the spike with a chainsaw so the goats would not hurt themselves.
Jackie, from West Chiltington, West Sussex, said: “Part of it [the chair] had rotted away and broken off, which then left this great big point. Originally it was rounded and the bits along the other side of it had obviously rotted and fallen off and there was this horrific great big sharp point.
“But it’s frustrating that I looked at it and thought they could get impaled on it but I never thought for one minute I would impale myself on it. I was trying to protect my goats really. It was really scary at first.
“For animals to be impaled on something like that they would have to be put to sleep, you wouldn’t be able to treat that so I was obviously quite anxious about it, but it never occurred to me that I might hurt myself. I was pretty shocked in all honesty, I still can’t believe it really, how little it hurt because if you saw a picture of it you would think that must be absolutely excruciating but it honestly wasn’t.
“Those goats had no idea, they were happily grazing, jumping up the fence and trying to get brambles like they do in their own little world. Ordinarily they would be all over me, they’re like dogs really they follow you everywhere but on this occasion obviously they were more interested in the brambles and the grass, the little rascals.”
When Jackie arrived at the hospital at around 11:30am on Sunday morning, she said she was told her wound, which was 6cm deep and 5cm long, was full thickness. They flushed the wound, but were worried there could be splinters inside of Jackie’s leg that they could not reach.
At 6:30pm that night, Jackie was sent to Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton to see an orthopaedic specialist and on Monday, she had a debridement surgery to remove any damaged or infected tissue from the cut. The veterinary receptionist returned home on 20 August with eight stitches in her leg.
She is currently using David’s mobility scooter to get around her land to look after their four ponies, two dogs, three cats and three goats while her wound heals. Jackie said: “It [the wound] never would have healed on its own and they were concerned because it was wood that I had fallen onto and because it was the goat’s seat they were concerned about infection as well.
“Because they couldn’t see how deep it had gone they were concerned it could have potentially gone as deep as my femur. Or it may have damaged ligaments and tendons and muscles but I feel incredibly lucky that since I’ve put on a bit of weight I think the fat saved me really.
“I mean it was a sharp pain initially but I think your mind is so good at numbing things out. I was just so convinced it was just a graze.
“I feel incredibly lucky because if I had fallen forwards instead of backwards it probably would have gone straight through my femoral artery in which case I wouldn’t be here now. It was absolutely a lucky escape. If you hit your femoral artery there is no coming back from it.
“And I could easily have slipped forward easily and it probably would have gone straight into my groin.”
However Jackie admits the goats failed to recognise the sacrifice she had made for their safety and continued with their day as normal.
Jackie said: “They weren’t really grateful, they didn’t even lift their heads up actually. They are real characters. They are amazing animals but they are so naughty.
“They are really really mischievous and proper escape artists. They’ve managed to get into the local garden centre. They’ve been on the roof of the caravan, the roof of the stables, they’ve been into next door.
“They’re part of the family, if they had it their way they would be in the house in front of the Aga.”