pirate44
08-09-2005, 07:32 AM
London - A man survived after accidently shooting himself in the heart with a nail gun.
Surgeons said Nigel Kirk from Burton on Trent, Staffordshire, came within 1mm of dying.
Kirk was nailing down floorboards in his bathroom when he tripped and fell, reports the newspaper, The Sun.
The gun fired a two-inch steel tack into the lining of his heart.
Kirk dialled 999 and was rushed to a heart unit at a hospital in Leicester where the nail was removed in a delicate operation.
Doctors said he would have bled to death if he had tried to pull out the nail.
The wound would have been fatal if the nail had not hit hard scar tissue built up from an illness 30 years earlier.
Kirk said: "I count my blessings every day that I'm still alive."
Surgeon Dr Andrew Sosnowski said: "The nail had actually penetrated his heart, but fortunately it missed any of the vital heart vessels." - Ananova.com
Surgeons said Nigel Kirk from Burton on Trent, Staffordshire, came within 1mm of dying.
Kirk was nailing down floorboards in his bathroom when he tripped and fell, reports the newspaper, The Sun.
The gun fired a two-inch steel tack into the lining of his heart.
Kirk dialled 999 and was rushed to a heart unit at a hospital in Leicester where the nail was removed in a delicate operation.
Doctors said he would have bled to death if he had tried to pull out the nail.
The wound would have been fatal if the nail had not hit hard scar tissue built up from an illness 30 years earlier.
Kirk said: "I count my blessings every day that I'm still alive."
Surgeon Dr Andrew Sosnowski said: "The nail had actually penetrated his heart, but fortunately it missed any of the vital heart vessels." - Ananova.com