LONDON, ONT. -- A 16-year-old girl is lucky to be alive after being impaled by a fence in Woodstock over the weekend.

Police say around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, the girl was playing in a backyard of a Lansdowne Avenue home when a ball they were using went over the fence.

The girl tried to jump the fence to retrieve the ball, but ended up being impaled by an arrowhead garden spike.

Woodstock Fire Department officials had to cut the spike and paramedics rushed the victim to hospital.

Luckily, it missed all of her vital organs.

She has since been released from a London hospital.