New Delhi: Quick, smart thinking saved the life of a man from Wisconsin, after a minor accident at home that had chances of becoming fatal.
52-year-old Doug Bergeson was at home trying to build a frame for a fireplace, when the nail gun he was using accidentally slipped from his hands and a nail ended up piercing his chest, exactly where the heart is.
The severeness of the impact didn't hit him until he realised that the nail was twitching in synchronisation with his heartbeat.
He sensed that removing the nail himself would mean grave consequences, so he immediately got into his car – with the nail in his chest intact – and drove 20 km to the hospital.
The hospital staff took him into the emergency room as soon as he reached, as he texted his wife surrounded by nurses.
According to a report in the Deccan Chronicle, after tests and a tetanus shot, Doug underwent an open heart surgery which took over an hour as the nail was removed and doctors made sure that there was no damage on the surrounding area.
They said the nail was an inch away from a major artery and if the heart would’ve been in a different part of the beating cycle, things may have been difficult.
Doug’s quick decision to not pull out the nail came as a result of 'crocodile hunter' Steve Irwin’s death which was caused by him pulling out a stingray’s stinger out of his heart, Deccan Chronicle reported.
