A teenager's life was saved by a tree branch after he escaped death having plunged 40ft off a path next to a waterfall.

Marshall Hoyle miraculously survived without a single broken bone after falling by the picturesque Thomasson Foss waterfall in Goathland, North Yorkshire. It could have been very different had the dead branch not broken his fall.

The lad was rescued and rushed hospital where he was diagnosed with traumatic pneumothorax, also known as a collapsed lung, but was told he didn’t even break a single bone in the horror fall last weekend. It comes after the NHS warns mouth symptom could be life-shortening disease.

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Marshall and his friend Lucas Hazel, 19, both from Hull, East Yorkshire, had been enjoying hiking, swimming, and jumping from the waterfall before the accident on Saturday. But things took a traumatic turn - and is thankful Mother Nature was on hand to help.

The lucky teen said: “There’s a waterfall you can jump off in to a big rock pool. We did that, we went from the middle jump – which I’d say is 20ft, and my friend wanted to do the top jump, which is 40/50ft.

“He was on the way up to the top jump, and somebody that was visiting for the day wanted to do the jump as well, so I showed them the way up. I was on my way back down to video my friend, and I just slipped. I was trying to grab on to anything I could get my hands on.

“I can remember falling for a split second, but that’s completely it. I woke up with a local person holding my neck in case it was broken.” The fortunate 19-year-old added: “Where I landed, there was a tree branch – a dead tree branch six inches thick.

“I landed on that and snapped it clean in half. I think if that hadn’t have been there I wouldn’t be having this conversation.” Friend Lucas said: “He was just sliding down with his hands above his hand, trying to grab on to something.

“Then he disappeared, and I just heard him free-fall and land on a dead branch with a big snap. I heard everyone screaming, so I thought a bone was sticking out or he was dead or something, because everyone was screaming or crying. Obviously, it’s a long way down.”

After leaving the area to get phone signal, Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue were called to extract the teenager from the gorge and take him to an ambulance.

Marshall said: “I was in a world of pain waiting for paramedics. I was lying on loads of rocks and boulders, I was in a very awkward position. I thought I’d broken my hip – it wasn’t excruciating, but it wasn’t far off. I think I was also hypothermic because of the water, I was only wearing shorts. My full body was shaking.”

He added: “They put me in to a vacuum pack stretcher, so they placed me in it and pumped it up so I couldn’t move. Then they trekked me all the way back up the river – it was not a short walk.” Marshall’s family have now donated £50 to the mountain rescue team.

Mum Kayley, 50, said: “They were absolutely amazing, I can’t thank them enough. Without them doing that, I dread to think what would have happened. We’ve thanked them on their Facebook page as well, and we’ve also donated.

“The chances of somebody surviving that – it’s unheard of. I don’t know who it was, but somebody must have been looking over him to give him the chance to live.”

Sixth-sensed dad Andy, 55, said he had phoned Marshall earlier in the day to warn him to take care following a premonition that something might go wrong. He said: “I just had this crazy thought that something was going to happen that day – that’s why I rang him to say ‘check the depth of the water, be careful’.

“You know when you get a niggling feeling at the back of your head, it just kept recurring to me all day. I just had this thought that something was going to happen – though I’m not a psychic. I just had this crazy feeling something wrong was going to happen. I know what he’s like, he’s accident prone."

In a statement, Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue team said: “The team were called to assist the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust with the rescue of a patient that at fallen 40ft from a footpath near Thomason Foss water fall.

“Local team members where quickly on scene with the patient providing initial assessment and medical treatment before ambulance service paramedics arrived.

“Team members worked together with the ambulance service to give pain relief, apply splints and package the patient in to a vacmat, then on to our bell rescue stretcher for the difficult extraction down stream, then up out of the steep gorge to the awaiting ambulance at the roadside for onward transport to hospital. We wish them a speedy recovery.”