A teenager is fighting for his life after he tripped over and pierced his NECK – on a sunbed tube.
Bricklayer Grant Adams, 17, fell over a shoe and into a free-standing tanning device at his home before tumbling down the stairs.
The glass tube pierced his neck in two places and slashed his jugular vein, and his distraught family desperately tried to stem the flow of blood before medics arrived.
Grant, an amateur boxer, was taken to hospital in an air ambulance where he was put in an induced coma.
His aunt Michelle Kelly, 33, who lives near his home in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, said: “I got a knock on the door and I dashed over to help.
“Grant had pulled a bit of the glass tube out of his neck already and I held my hand over his neck to try and stop the flow of blood.
“The ambulance came and took him to hospital where they took him into surgery to close the wounds up and put him in an induced coma as he wasn’t able to breathe.
“Grant is an amateur boxer and a big, healthy lad and we are all just hoping he will pull through.”
A shocked neighbour who did not want to be named, added: “We cant believe this has happened. It’s a total freak accident which you wouldnt wish on anybody.
“We heard he’d just got out of bed when he fell on to the sunbed and then ended up going down the stairs.
“The first we knew about it was when we heard the helicopter, then quite a few people came out into the street to see what was going on.”
The apprentice bricklayer was given emergency treatment after the freak accident at 9am on Sunday, and taken to Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.
A spokesman for Northumbria Police said: “At 9.05am police received reports from the ambulance service that a 17-year-old boy was suffering from a serious injury.
“He was taken to by air ambulance to Newcastle’s RVI in a critical condition.
“There is no third party involvement and at this stage this appears to be an accident.”
