A gardener miraculously survived a freak chainsaw accident after cutting his neck open, but missing his windpipe by just millimetres.
Christopher York, 65, said he was saved by a number of lucky coincidences after suffering ‘catastrophic blood loss’ while working in his garden in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
The chainsaw had jammed while he was cutting left to right, but rather than kicking back it ‘leapt forward and span around’ as it followed through a branch, hitting his neck.
The father-of-four described feeling a ‘cold wetness’ on his front as his shirt was soaked in blood, pouring down as far as his trousers.
But by an enormous stroke of fortune, a specialist vascular surgeon happened to be at the hospital where he was rushed by paramedics - and was able to operate on him, saving his life.
