Woman impaled by metal spike while mowing lawn

A woman who was impaled by a two foot spike while mowing her lawn is keeping it as “a souvenir”.

Kaylee Malone, 31, was mowing her lawn on Friday, June 13, with her nine-month-old son, in a carrier on her back.

She was only three feet away from her shed when she heard a “loud and aggressive” noise coming from her lawn mower.

Kaylee checked to see what she had hit, but it was only when she looked down at her left leg that she clocked a giant metal spike piercing through her calf that she couldn’t feel.

With her little boy still on her back, she managed to walk 150 feet across her yard to call 911.

Once the paramedics arrived, Kaylee was rushed to hospital where she had an hour and a half operation to remove the metal spike.

Thankfully, the spike didn’t hit any bones, but Kaylee does have nerve damage and was able to walk out of the hospital later that day.

Kaylee returned to the hospital to collect the spike, which she hung up in her garage, and is selling t-shirts of her x-ray to help pay for her medical bills.

Kaylee, a deck hand and student, from Destin, Florida, said: “When I went to pick up the spike, all the medical staff looked at me with huge eyes thinking ‘how did that not hurt you more?’.

“I’ve been told that I’m very fortunate, you can be blessed even when you get impaled.

“I’m hanging the spike up in my garage. I don’t want it in my house or my yard.

“I’ve also made t-shirts with my x-ray on them, which I’m selling to help pay for my medical bills.”

On June 13, 2025, Kaylee noticed that the grass on her lawn had shot up by a foot due to recent storms.

She decided to go and cut it herself and popped her son on her back in a carrier while she was doing it.

Kaylee said: “I put my baby on my back, he loves the sound of the lawn mower.

“I had cranked it up, went forwards, backwards and forwards again.

“Less than five minutes into mowing, it made a loud and aggressive sound.

“The mower turned off, as it turned off, I wondered what I hit, I was scanning my yard for a rock or a ball.”

While she was searching, Kaylee noticed the lawn mower had hit a spike that was in her tall grass.

The spike was lodged into Kaylee’s left leg, which she didn’t feel.

She said: “As I’m looking around, I look down at my left leg and there is a big metal spike in there.

“I released a few large curse words, I left out a big F word, but of course I had my son on my back and I didn’t want to scare him.

“My first thought was to call 911, but my phone was 150 feet away on my porch and I was on the opposite side of the porch.”

Kaylee finally made it over to her phone, but as she got there, she started to feel faint and dizzy.

Concerned for her son’s safety, after calling 911, she called her local butcher, who came to check on her before paramedics arrived 30 minutes later.

Kaylee said: “When the paramedics showed up, one of the paramedics was putting in my EV, and accidentally stepped on the spike still in my leg, which hurt.

“Then, as they were carrying me in the ambulance, he stepped on it again.

“The fire department was also called; it took all four guys to put me in the ambulance.”

Kaylee was blue-lit to the hospital, where she had an operation to remove the metal spike from her leg.

The surgery took an hour and a half, and once she came around, Kaylee was given a tetanus shot and a round of antibiotics before leaving the hospital later that day.

Kaylee said: “They completely put me under, which I was super thankful for.

“The surgery was an hour and a half. Right after surgery, when I woke up, I could stand up – I didn’t break a bone.

“I was out of the hospital by 3.30pm, I didn’t need a boot or anything.”

Kaylee is currently on a course of medication to help with the pain. Doctors have told her that her leg is healing well.

---

Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post’s signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here!

---

A few days after the surgery, Kaylee went back to the hospital to collect the metal stick to put up in her garage.

She said: “The next day I was doing the dishes and sweeping the floors like they needed to get done.

“I have some pain medication, and my leg is still wrapped while it heals.

“The doctor said it is healing amazingly, he said all the muscles and tissue need to grow back and repair.

“There is no time on that currently; it could take a couple of weeks or months.”