The 19-year-old Jersey Shore lifeguard who was impaled in the arm by a beach umbrella was pushed onto it by a gust of wind and was lucky that the stake didn’t pierce her just inches to the left because it would have gone through her body, her boss said.
The college student was standing on top of the lifeguard stand setting up the umbrella Wednesday morning when a strong breeze knocked her and the umbrella down, Joe Bongiovanni, the head of Asbury Park’s beach operations told Patch.
“Two inches to the left, it would have gone through her body,” Bongiovanni said. “She is petite. She’s not even five feet tall on a good day and I’d say she’s 90 pounds.”
When the teen fell, the stake pierced her left arm below the tricep, and came out through her back and shoulder area sticking out about a foot. While painful and gruesome, the injury could have been far worse.
“It did pierce her lateral muscle, but it never touched the bone,” Bongiovanni said.
“She’s lucky and she’s unlucky at the same time. If she had landed one inch to the right, the umbrella wouldn’t have touched her at all,” he added.
First responders had to remove the six-foot pole with a bandsaw so she could be taken to the hospital, where Bongiovanni visited her Wednesday night.
She was “in great spirits” hanging out with friends and family while resting in her bed, he said.
“The doctors told her six to eight weeks of recovery, and she immediately goes ‘Oh good, I can come back to work this summer then.’ She would come back to work tomorrow if she could,” he said. “She is one tough cookie.”
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