Hat saves impaled man from bleeding to death

Wow... I don't even know what to say... Just read the article...
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(thecouriermail.com.au)

BIGGENDEN farmer Keith Weinholz can thank his trusty hat for saving his life.

When his neighbour's cow kicked out and sent a 2m drafting stick spearing through his throat and shoulder, puncturing his jugular vein, it was the string and toggle from Mr Weinholz's Akubra that stopped him bleeding to death on the spot.

"The stick took the hat string with it and the toggle," said Mr Weinholz yesterday as he resumed light chores around his Boompa property, west of Maryborough.

"It (the toggle) went against the jugular vein and blocked the blood flow."

The accident happened on February 7 this year as Mr Weinholz, 66, helped draft a neighbour's pet Brahman-cross cow from calves in a small yard.

"As I reached through the rail, she must have been a bit anxious and she kicked out behind and my stick came flying back at me."

The stick pierced his throat, damaging his vocal cords, penetrated his rib cage and punctured a lung.

Mr Weinholz said he was conscious the whole time and remembers being given relief for the excruciating pain when an ambulance officer arrived.

His condition was so serious that the Energex rescue helicopter flew a retrieval team to Bundaberg from Brisbane to accompany him to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital for surgery when the stick was removed.

He spent nine days in intensive care followed by stints in Bundaberg Base Hospital and then Biggenden hospital where physiotherapy was started to try to get his voice back. He is still a bit husky and still suffering the physical effects of his brush with death, including slivers of wood in his healing wounds, but reckons he's "getting along okay".

Mr Weinholz said he had been able to resume one of his favourite past-times - dancing with his wife Audrey.

And he still has that lucky hat.

"Although it's missing a bit of the string," he said.