A man was fighting for his life after a freak accident saw him impaled in the neck by a five-foot iron rod.
Karthikeyan, 33, was watering concrete slabs on the first floor of his home in Tiruchirappalli, India, when he accidentally slipped and fell 20ft (six metres).
As he fell, a five ft (1.5m) long iron rod with serrated edges pierced and went all the way through his neck.
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Karthikeyan was rushed to hospital, where a team of miracle doctors looked after him.
He had a three-hour surgery to remove the rod and save his life.
But there were further complications, as after the surgery, it was revealed that he had developed aspiration pneumonitis caused by gastric contents entering into the lungs.
Miraculously, Karthikeyan has now made a full recovery – much to the surprise of doctors.
Dr Mohamed Mansoor, who led the operating team, said that Karthikeyan was 'really lucky' to have gotten better.
He said: “Within fifteen minutes of the mishap, his relatives rushed him to our hospital which is in close vicinity.
“On evaluation in an emergency, it was seen that he had a 5 feet long iron rod penetrating into the anterior aspect of neck and exiting the posterior aspect of neck.
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"After initial stabilisation of the patient by the emergency team, a plan was chartered out to remove the iron rod by involving a team of specialists.
"We were not able to do any sort of imaging or x-ray of the wound as it would have created an artifact (distortion).
"So only a bedside ultrasound was done to ensure no major vascular injury.
“The rod was then shortened on either side with the help of maintenance engineers in the hospital."
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"Shorting of the rod was the only option available to ensure safe mobilisation of the patient as the rod would make it difficult to enable us to subject him to any form of scanning or interventions."
He added: "The patient was immediately shifted to the operating room for surgery.
"This was a challenging surgery as the neck is the complex region, which has important structures like trachea (windpipe), esophagus (food pipe), major vessels supplying to the brain (carotid artery).
"A team of specialists ensured that none of the major organs or vessels in the neck was injured.
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“Cases of grievous neck injury such as this are rare, and survival rates are quite low in our state.
"The patient was really lucky to have been brought to hospital quickly and also to have his voice unaffected by the accident.
"As surgeons, we had to ensure that the rod was removed with precision, with no residual contents left behind.
The doctor issued a warning to the public, as he said: "We hope that the public will treat this as a cautionary incident and be careful on construction sites."
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