Nebraska Teen Impaled by Deer Antler

OMAHA, Neb. --

A teenager nearly suffered a serious injury after falling on a set of deer antlers that just missed his spine.

Todd Reynolds, 16, was locked out of a mobile home on Ninth Street in Carter Lake, Iowa, and tried to climb through a window to get his keys. When he fell through the window, he landed on a set of antlers that were on the floor.

"He's got a hole about this big in his back," said his grandmother, Jeanne Reynolds. She said the antlers came within an eighth of an inch of hitting Todd's spine.

"I freaked," she said. "I lost it."

Jeanne Reynolds said her son, a paramedic, put towels and tape around the antlers in the boy's back.

"So the antlers wouldn't move and do any more damage to his spine," she said.

An ambulance rushed Todd Reynolds to a hospital, where doctors removed the antlers from his back.

"He's very fortunate because if it had penetrated his spine, it could have paralyzed him," she said.

The teen is already out of the hospital and recovering at home. He's on painkillers and infection medicine, but his doctors expect him to recover.

Jeanne Reynolds said she had kept the antlers after an accident a few years ago.

"It was the first deer I ever hit," she said. "This was a symbol to watch for deer. Now, I don't know what I'm going to do with them."