An Arkansas State University-Jonesboro student was injured at a fraternity house party Tuesday when a broken golf club impaled her in the neck, officials said.
Around 5:42 p.m., police found Natalie Eaton, 18, at the Kappa Alpha House on campus with the shaft of a golf club impaled into the left side of her neck, according to an university police report.
Two men were helping Eaton by holding her head up and applying pressure to the wound when officers arrived.
Students were playing games outside of the house while waiting for a cookout to start, according to the report. During one of the games, cookout attendees were throwing footballs and hitting them with a golf club as a bat.
As the golf club hit the football, the club’s shaft broke and separated about one foot from the end, the report states.
The broken club was flung about 30 feet, striking one woman behind her ear before it impaled Eaton. The first victim, whom police didn't identify, told officers she was all right but was still taken to an urgent-care center to be treated for "redness and swelling," the report states.
Eaton was taken to St. Bernard’s Medical Center in Jonesboro and later was airlifted to a Memphis hospital. An update on Eaton’s condition was not immediately available Wednesday afternoon.
ASU Vice Chancellor Rick Stripling issued a statement Wednesday addressing the accident.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Natalie Eaton. Once you are here at Arkansas State, you are part of the Red Wolves family,” Stripling said in the statement.
Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more on this story.