13-year-old boy impaled by flying beach umbrella at Gloucester beach

GLOUCESTER , MASS. (WHDH) - A 13-year-old boy who was vacationing in Gloucester was rushed to the hospital Friday after being impaled by a flying beach umbrella, officials said.

The boy suffered a puncture wound to his left shoulder at Good Harbor Beach around 1:30 p.m.

Witnesses say other beachgoers, a nurse, and a lifeguard immediately ran to help the young teen.

Jacob Vargus saw what happened and said, “When I saw that I started to run down and when I got down there, there was like a hole in the kid’s arm so I started to talk to him, another lady started tying a tourniquet while others were calling the paramedics.”

Mike Marnoto, who also saw the incident unfold, said, “These things, unfortunately, happen all of the time, people don’t dig them down firmly and they can impale you, they can hurt you so, hopefully, it’s a lesson for people at the beach to seriously dig their umbrella poles in the ground so they don’t come out and hurt anybody.”

Gloucester Fire Department Lt. Nick Ouellette says when crews arrived the boy was in good condition and was very calm, not crying or screaming, and did not have the umbrella in his shoulder.

“When we heard it come over the radio we kind of did a double-take because we confirmed he was in fact reportedly impaled by a beach umbrella,” Ouellette said. “It’s a pretty rare event around here even with the number of beaches we have, and the amount of people we have visit our beaches every year, it’s not a common occurrence.”

Firefighters say they were tending to another injury at the beach at the same time. The injuries were unrelated.

The beach remained open during these incidents.

The boy suffered non-life-threatening but serious injuries.

This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.

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