Man, 86, survives shears impaling his eye socket

An elderly American man has survived being impaled through the eye socket by a pair of pruning shears.

Leroy Luetscher, from Green Valley in the state of Arizona, had just finished trimming plants in his back garden when he fell face-first onto his shears, sending one of the handles through his right eye socket and halfway into his head.

He was rushed to hospital, where a team of surgeons discovered the shears' handle had gone 6in (15cm) into Mr Luetscher's head.

The 86-year-old has made a remarkable recovery from the incident on 30 July - he still has slight swelling in his eyelids and minor double vision, but is otherwise fine.