- Troy was cutting overhanging oak tree branches when his ladder gave way, sending him crashing face-first onto the ground
- Doctors discovered a 12cm branch had pierced his jaw and nasal cavity, coming dangerously close to his brain and a major blood vessel
- After a four-hour operation and three days in hospital, Troy feels like he cheated death
Here Troy Hathaway, 45, tells his story in his own words
Gazing around the backyard one morning, I noticed that my neighbour’s oak trees were leaning over onto our side of the property.
I better tidy those up before they get too big, I thought.
It was July this year, and after fetching my handsaw from the garage, I set up my 2.4-metre A-frame ladder to reach the taller branches.
While my wife, Michelle, 36, was inside with our daughter, Sophie, four, tidying the playroom, I got to work.
As the branches, which were above me, crashed to the ground, I tilted my head to avoid getting knocked down with them.
Within 25 minutes, a large pile had collected on the grass below.
Just one more, I thought, hacking through the last remaining overhanging branch.
Then, as I dodged to avoid it as it fell, the ladder gave way under me.
Plummeting towards the ground, I dropped the saw, but there was no time to brace myself before… thwack!
I hit the ground face-first.
Dazed, I felt foolish for losing my balance.
Scanning my body for signs of any broken bones, I was relieved my limbs hadn’t been shattered on impact.
READ MORE REAL LIFE: I fell three metres off a ladder and was impaled by my paintbrush’
Then I felt an agonising pain radiating through the left side of my face.
I must’ve hit it on the corner of the ladder, I shuddered.
Wiping my face to check for blood, my hand came away clean, so I figured I might have broken my jaw.
As the pain intensified, I yelled for help, but I knew the chances of Michelle hearing me were unlikely.
Summoning all my strength, I heaved myself onto my hands and knees, and crawled the seven metres to the back door.
Inside, Michelle, who worked as a physician’s assistant, took one look at my face before jumping into action.
‘Let’s get you to hospital,’ she said, remaining calm, as she guided me outside and into the front passenger seat of our car.
I wasn’t sure how mangled my jaw was, so I wrapped a towel around it to avoid frightening Sophie, who was in the back seat, as Michelle got behind the wheel.
Arriving in Emergency eight minutes later, I took a seat in the waiting room.
Glancing at the people sitting opposite me, I saw a look of horror on their faces when my towel slipped.
‘There’s a branch sticking out of your face,’ Michelle said, explaining their reaction to me.
What? I fretted.
READ MORE REAL LIFE: ‘DIY Disaster: ‘A pipe went through my chest!’’
Peering down, I could only just make out a dark green shadow on my left cheek where a leaf was poking out.
That means the rest is buried deep inside me, I gulped.
There was no blood, as the branch had acted like a cork, stemming any liquid from seeping out.
Taken for a CAT scan, it revealed the 12-centimetre branch had penetrated through my jaw and up through the nasal cavity.
It was lodged up against my brain and touching a blood vessel.
‘It’s a miracle you’re alive,’ doctors said when I was finally seen.
As it needed specialist treatment to safely remove it, I was flown to another hospital 30 minutes away.
After dropping Sophie off for her parents to look after, Michelle drove to meet me there.
‘Good luck. You’ll be okay,’ she said, kissing me goodbye before I was wheeled into surgery.
Worried, I prayed I’d live to see her, Sophie and my older kids from a previous marriage, Haley, 21, Kyla, 19, and Dawson, 16, again.
During the four-hour op, an ENT surgeon carefully went through my nose, removing a bone from behind my right eye to free the branch from next to my brain, before sliding it out through the hole in my cheek.
Coming to in ICU, I was grateful to be alive.
READ MORE REAL LIFE: ‘I was impaled by a Christmas tree’
The doctor mentioned the branch was two millimetres away from my right optic nerve, and could have cost me my eyesight, if it had moved even slightly.
‘If the branch punctured your blood vessel, this would’ve been a very different story,’ he said.
Miraculously, it hadn’t pierced through any vital tissue.
Discharged three days later, I felt like I’d cheated death.
Back home, I was overjoyed to be reunited with Sophie. She’d been spared the gory details of my freak accident and was excited to have me back.
‘Daddy!’ she beamed, smothering me with cuddles.
Then I FaceTimed my big kids, as they live far away from me.
After two weeks of recovery, I was back at work as an HR director.
Three months on, I’m still slowly regaining my strength but I have to be careful – if I do any strenuous exercise now, I’m at risk of having a brain leak due to the bone being removed from behind my eye.
I am allowed to do light weight training, but must avoid anything that requires a bent over position.
I also don’t have a strong sense of taste or smell following the freak accident, and hope it returns one day.
I never imagined a simple chore could almost cost me my life.
Now, I treasure every moment I get with my beautiful family. They are my everything.
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