A New Jersey man is lucky to be alive after he accidentally shot himself in the heart with a nail gun while doing repair work on a neighbor's roof.
Dennis Hennis, of Vineland, New Jersey was shot by the nail gun after the device jammed. Thinking nothing of it, the self-employed man tried to fix the problem which he said happens a lot.
'‘Like I've done a hundred times before, just undo it,’ he said. '‘But it wasn't doing so well, and I had turned it a little too far, and pop, it felt like someone poked me right in the chest.''
A three and a half inch nail shot into the 52-year-old’s chest, puncturing the right side of his heart.
As paramedics rushed to his aid, Hennis held onto the nail that was poking out of his body. Unable to be airlifted to a hospital because of fog, the man had to be rushed by ambulance instead. But during the journey Hennis went into cardiac arrest. CPR attempts wedged the nail in further, making a larger hole in his heart.
''I thought I was really gone, I really did,'' said Hennis.
However, a team of cardiac and trauma surgeons were able to give Hennis life saving surgery.
'You're talking about a puncture wound to the heart,' said Dr. Michael Rosenbloom. ''He's very lucky. There are so many things that had to take place for him to be alive.''
Despite his harrowing ordeal, Hennis has pledged to get back to work as soon as he has recovered, adding that he will be much more careful in future.
'‘Safety first,’' he said.
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TXT 24
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