A police officer who had been on the beat for just six days kept up the chase for his first suspect - even after tripping over and getting a six-inch

A police officer who had been on the beat for just six days kept up the chase for his first suspect - even after tripping over and getting a six-inch stick impaled in his eye.

New officer John Nash slipped on a muddy lawn, sliding into a bush before dusting himself off and continuing to make an arrest.

But it was only when his suspect turned to him and said: 'Mate, you've got to go to hospital,' did he notice the broken-off branch sticking out of his left eye.

Pc Nash, aged 25, was in an unmarked police vehicle following two cars which were being driven erratically on an estate in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, when one of the cars was abandoned.

Two men ran off and the officer gave chase, cornering one in a dead end.

Pc Nash said: 'I had run across some grass to cut him off just as he got to a fence and drew my baton just as I got there.

'The weather was horrible - It was dark, cold and raining. The grass was boggy and I slipped.

'I was really motoring, really running and I slid into a shrub and I had a ringing in my left ear. I thought I'd hit my baton as I fell.

'The suspect was still trying to get over the fence and I grabbed his ankle. He kept referring to my face and I said: "That doesn't matter - come on". I just thought I'd given myself a black eye.

'Somebody said: "Get an ambulance quick - he's got something in his eye". I wondered whether he was talking about me.

'I looked across with my right eye and that's when I noticed a stick coming out of my left eye.

'I thought: "what the heck is that?"'

His shocked colleagues immediately took him to hospital in their patrol car, before he underwent three hours of surgery to remove the stick.

It had pierced his eye-lid, smashed a cheek-bone, forced itself underneath his eye-ball and come to rest up against his brain - surgeons told him was lucky to be alive.

He was discharged after three days and has retained some sight in the eye, which he hopes will eventually return to normal.

Surgeon Annaswami Vijaykumar, who operated on the eye at Blackburn Royal Hospital, said: 'If the piece of wood had entered a couple of millimetres differently the eye would have been permanently damaged. The operation was extremely complicated.

'The officer is very fortunate and lucky to be able to see again, currently the vision is limited at present but may improve with time.'

Pc Nash added: 'I would do the same again tomorrow. I love my job. I've always wanted to be in the police. It sounds corny but I've always wanted to help people.'

Pc Nash said doctors and warned his 23-year-old fiancée Rebecca Senior that the injury could be serious.

'Before the surgery I was told I might lose the sight of the eye and brain damage was likely,' he said.

'They told Rebecca it was life-threatening. Luckily, it only touched my brain and they managed to get it out.'

Rebecca said: 'I think it's just a miracle. I'm so proud of what he's done.'

Insp Ian Hanson, of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said: 'Although John was extremely lucky, I suppose it shows the dangers that officers across Greater Manchester face on a daily basis.

The 20-year-old suspect arrested was later released without charge.