Woman, 81, nearly dies in towel rack impalement

Rocky Mountain News and CBS 4 News

Friday, November 2, 2007

COLORADO SPRINGS — Penrose Hospital is keeping a towel rack as a teaching tool after a woman impaled herself with it while getting out of the shower.

The woman nearly died.

Jessie Seymore, 81, had been holding onto the rod for balance for nearly five years.

But Seymore fell recently, impaling herself.

"It went into my right side and I pulled it out," she said.

In pain, Seymore managed to dial hang-up calls to 911, hoping they'd be traced. Her daughter, Shirley Brown, eventually found her mom and called for an ambulance.

"The rod had gone through her liver and had barely missed her heart and her lungs," Brown said. "It was just a miracle."

The towels on the rack had fallen under Seymore, which doctors said helped control her bleeding.

Seymore, who was on life support after her heart and lungs failed, remains sore but is eager to go home.

She's currently living in a rehabilitation center after spending a month in the hospital.

Seymore hopes to be home by Thanksgiving.

Her family had always insisted that she carry her cordless phone around the house, and it may have saved her life during the 25 minutes she spent on the bathroom floor.

Reporting by CBS4's Jodi Brooks