A FARMER whose stablehand had a miracle escape after her throat was impaled on a metal spike has said she was a “very lucky girl”.

Jenny Butler, 24, was left with a one-inch spike through her neck after she slipped on to a fence at Elms Farm, in Depden.

Amazingly, the spike missed her windpipe, and every artery and nerve ending in her neck in the freak incident and she was expected to return home last night.

Andrew Read, who owns MF Read and Sons livery yard in Depden, said: “She was a very lucky girl. It was potentially a dreadful situation. She’s in shock but she’s going to be fine.”

Mr Read said Miss Butler, who has worked at the livery for two years, had been clearing a field at about 3.25pm on Tuesday when a horse tried to get out.

Trying to stop the horse from escaping through a gate, she was pushed against some fencing when the plastic coating on a metal insulator stick holding electric wiring came off and the spike went into her neck.

Mr Read was the first to find Miss Butler after she called for help on her mobile telephone while still impaled on the fence.

“I held on to her while the emergency services came as she was still attached to the spike,” he said. “I kept chatting to her as I knew there was nothing I could do. She was very calm, she knew it was a serious situation.”

Despite the seriousness of her injury, Mr Read said there was no blood at all.

Paramedics managed to cut Miss Butler free but kept the spike in her neck while they took her to West Suffolk Hospital, in Bury St Edmunds.

Following emergency surgery, Miss Butler is recovering well and was expected to return to her home in Barrow last night.

Mr Read said although Miss Butler had been riding a quad bike before the accident, she had not been on the vehicle when the accident happened.