Boy impaled by beach umbrella after freak accident while on holiday

A teen boy is lucky to be alive after he was impaled by a rogue flying beach umbrella while on holiday. Photo / Getty

A teen boy is lucky to be alive after he was impaled by a rogue flying beach umbrella while on holiday.

The 13-year-old boy was on Good Harbour Beach in Massachusetts with his family when an umbrella got loose in the wind and impaled him in the shoulder, leaving him seriously injured.

Family members started screaming as bystanders rushed to help stem the flow of blood.

"I was sitting right here, and a little gust of wind came up, and the umbrella popped straight up in the air," Chris Carson told WCVB.

"Before anybody could grab it, it just kind of rolled over, and the kid was standing in the way on the beach. He couldn't get out of the way."

An off-duty nurse and lifeguards were on hand to calm the boy down, managing to use a beach towel to attend to his deep puncture wound.

First responders say they are treating a person who was impaled by a flying umbrella at Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester. #WCVB pic.twitter.com/stkyMXkKYz

— John Atwater (@AtwaterWCVB) August 9, 2019

"When I ran over, there was a really large gash in his shoulder," said witness Jacobs Vargus, who works on the beach.

"I was just telling him, 'don't worry, everything's going to be alright, you're doing good, kid, you're doing awesome'."

The boy had "serious but not life-threatening injuries" and was transported to Beverly Hospital, the fire department said.

Last year a British woman was also impaled by a rogue umbrella at a beach in New Jersey.

The umbrella pierced her right ankle and was driven through the other side due to the force of the wind.

Borough Police Chief Tommy Boyd says fire crews had to use a bolt cutter on the umbrella to free the woman and put her in an ambulance.