Ski instructor impaled by 18-inch branch

NEW YORK (FOX5NY) - Ouch!  A ski instructor needed surgery after a tree branch impaled him in the lip, forcing him to go to the hospital with the branch still sticking out of both sides of his mouth.

It happened in Jackson Hole, Wyoming to Natty Hagood.  He says, "I cut it a little too close to a tree while skiing."

He says it happened on his first run of the day.

“I thought maybe my chinstrap got pushed up into my face, so I tried to brush it off and that’s when I felt the stick,” Hagood told the Idaho State Journal. “So, I shook left to right and saw the stick moving in my peripherals. I reached out and grabbed it and wiggled it before realizing it was pretty far in there.”

It happened so quickly that he didn't feel any pain at the time.  The stick was 18-inches long but, incredibly, he snapped it down while it was still inside his mouth for the trip down the mountain.

The real pain started when he got to the hospital and they had to remove it and give him 15-stiches.

The bill was $1,500 but he quickly raised the money with a GoFundMe page.

He joked, "Guess I should reconsider the lip piercing trend."