A father who was impaled on a blunt metal spike in a horrific farming accident has spoken of his terrifying ordeal.

David Johnstone, 53, was strapping a load of hay bales onto a trailer when he slipped and fell 10ft onto the back of a tractor.

He thought he was going to die after the spike penetrated his chest and narrowly missed vital organs.

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David, of Warnham, near Horsham, said: “My immediate reaction was that I was just going to pick myself up.

“I took a couple of steps and fell over so the people I was working with took me over to a bale.

“I saw blood coming out of my chest and arms and every breath I took was smaller than the previous one because one of my lungs had collapsed. I was in absolute agony and thought I was going to die. It was terrifying.

“If it had been two inches or more either way, I would have died.”

Masonry consultant and dad-of-two David was helping a friend on the farm in West Chiltington, near Pullborough, when the accident happened in July.

Dr John O’Neill, of Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance, said: “When we arrived it was obvious David was very unwell with a major chest injury. He looked pale, clammy and his breathing was very laboured.

“There was a hole in his chest which was sucking in air every time he breathed, causing his lung to collapse and making his blood pressure dangerously low.

“It was clear he was deteriorating rapidly and needed urgent surgery to fix the problem which could not wait until he got to hospital.”

David spent six days at the Royal Sussex County Hospital major trauma centre in Brighton but has made an almost full recovery and recently met the air ambulance crew who saved his life.

David added: “The air ambulance made the difference. I just wanted to say thanks in person because one of the most valuable things you can give is your time.”