Policeman keeps chasing suspect despite impaling eye on six-inch branch

A novice police officer had a miraculous escape when a tree branch speared his eye socket during a chase. Pc John Nash was just six days into the job when he suffered the horrific injury in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

At first, he did not realise the severity of the wound, and carried on running - refusing to give up on his first arrest. It was only after the shocked suspect turned to him and said: "Mate, you've got to go to hospital" that he realised something was wrong.



Pc Nash, 25, had slipped in the mud while chasing the man across waste ground, and landed on a branch. It snapped and a six-inch piece stuck in his left eye. But with the adrenaline pumping, he got up again and carried on running.

"I was really motoring, really running and I slid into a shrub and I had a ringing in my left ear," he said. "I thought I'd hit my baton as I fell. I looked across with my right eye and that's when I noticed a stick coming out of my left eye."



He had three hours of surgery to remove the stick, which had forced itself under his eye-ball and just missed piercing his brain. Surgeons said the officer was lucky to be alive. He was discharged after four days and amazingly did not lose the eye.

He still suffers from blurred vision, but said hopefully his sight will eventually return to normal. The 20-year-old suspect he arrested was later released without charge.