Yikes! A Queens woman was impaled by a fence during a car accident in Broolyn. The Post reports that 6 feet of a 15 foot fence "ripped through Sherland Chandler-Torres' chest near her left shoulder missing her heart by inches," after a car hit her minivan, which then crashed into a fence and the fence pole. "The long horizontal metal pole on top of the fence crashed through her windshield, speared its way through her left shoulder just below the collarbone and continued on through the back of the driver's seat into the passenger seat behind her, witnesses said." Holy. The 35 year-old Chandler-Torres was taken to Kings County Hospital after NYPD and FDNY took the top off her car and cut both ends of the pole (a two foot section stayed). She is currently in critical but stable condition.
A nearby resident told the Post, "I tried to help, but I couldn't pull the iron out. It was too long. I grabbed the pole and she said, 'No.'" From what Gothamist remembers of First Aid, aren't you supposed to leave things in the wound (like a shard of glass), because you might cause more bleeding if you take them out? This reminds Gothamist we should take a First Aid class. The NYC Red Cross has courses for First Aid & CPR.
