Gardener who sliced throat with a chainsaw says cops thought his wife did it

A gardener slashed his neck with a chainsaw in a freak accident before cops mistakenly believed his wife had attacked him.

Christopher York, 65, lost more than two litres of blood when he lost control of the £120 Bosch chainsaw while trimming his hedges.

The sharp metal teeth ripped a two-inch gash under his chin in the freak accident at his home in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, on May 12.

The dad-of-four collapsed on the ground with blood spraying out of the wound.

His wife Veronika, 44, and a neighbour found Christopher lying in a pool of blood and dialled 999.

Christopher, a corporate financier, was rushed to the hospital where doctors discovered the blade had missed severing his jugular vein by just 1mm.

‘I had used hedge trimmers first to get rid of general bush detritus in the area. Then I was going for the larger bush trunks, but the chainsaw became stuck on the larger one.

‘I applied pressure and it flew through. It wouldn’t go further for a moment. I gave it a push, and that’s when it was flying over my right shoulder. I felt something cold and wet on the front of my shirt and glanced down to see a stream of rich red blood discharging onto my shirt and then continuing to my trousers and shoes.

‘A butcher with 20 years of experience wouldn’t be able to do what I did with a knife, let alone with a spinning chainsaw.’

By chance, a specialist vascular surgeon was on duty at the hospital that day, so he did not need to be transferred further afield.

Christopher spent weeks in intensive care in Chesterfield Royal Hospital before being allowed home.

‘The doctors said I lost two litres of blood, apparently it was more than that. That’s why I felt in the ambulance and on the stretcher that I couldn’t breathe,’ he added.

‘My body was getting the oxygen into my body, but I didn’t have the capacity to transport it around my body. I had to make conscious efforts to suck air in and out.’

As well as coming within a whisker of slicing through his jugular, Christopher also missed cutting his windpipe by just 3mm.

In a bizarre mix-up, Veronika was almost arrested by police on suspicion of attacking her husband.

Shortly after the accident, Veronika took the chainsaw to the tip, asking a worker where to dump the tool.

‘He just looked aghast, as it was covered in dried blood. She made a hacking motion at her neck with her right hand and just said ‘my husband’,’ Christopher said.

The worker thought it was a confession, and took down her plates as she drove off – but in reality, Veronika was rushing to see her husband in the ICU.

Christopher added: ‘Police wouldn’t let her see me. She was running through the hospital to get to the intensive care ward, and that’s when they caught her. She was in pre-arrest at that stage.

‘When they had realised it was a non-story, then they ascertained it was what Shakespeare might call a comedy of errors.’

Surgeon Gary Hicken said it was an extremely close call for Christopher: ‘If he had fallen a little bit harder or ever so slightly lower, then it would have hit these two major vessels, and he would have bled to death at the scene.’

Lisa, a senior sister in the emergency department, added: ‘It went like clockwork, there was someone looking over him that day.

‘He was very grateful to everyone in the hospital. Thanks to the staff that assembled that day, his wife has a husband, and his children have a father.’

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