Warning: Graphic Content
A construction worker incredibly remained conscious after falling 15 feet onto a steel bar that skewered his head – through his nostril.
45-year-old Li Xuedong fell while at a work site in the city of Lingyuan, in north-eastern China’s Liaoning province, on Saturday. In an incredibly unfortunate and gruesome coincidence, the lengthy reinforced steel bar just so happened to be placed directly in line with his nose.
The bar impaled the worker through his nostril before exiting through his skull, but that apparently wasn’t enough to knock the 45-year-old out, as video footage showed he was awake while being loaded into an ambulance.
Take a look at what happened after the incident below:
Unfortunately it wasn’t a quick journey to the hospital and Li’s family reportedly had to hold on to the steel bar – which was still extruding from his head – and keep it still for two hours as the construction worker was transported.
Li was driven to the provincial capital, Shenyang, where he was treated by medics at the General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region.
The hospital explained that around eight inches of the steel bar remained in Li’s face while six inches protruded from the top of his head above the exit wound. The bar looked to be around one centimetre thick.
A spokesperson for the hospital said the patient was conscious and lucid after the accident and that brain scans showed there was minimal bleeding – a very positive sign. Although his accident was undoubtedly the result of a series of unfortunate events, it seems the outcome could have been much worse.
When it came to removing the steel bar from Li’s head, hospital workers had to call in the Shenyang fire service for help. The firefighters had to figure out a way to shorten the bar, and after deciding against an angle grinder they settled on using a hydraulic cutter.
Poor Li. Angle grinders and hydraulic cutters don’t sound like tools you want anywhere near your skull, but luckily the firefighters’ efforts proved successful and he was later taken into a lengthy surgery to have the remaining section of the bar removed.
The hospital has not reported on the extent of Li’s head injuries but he is said to be in stable condition.
Hopefully he will make a full and fast recovery.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.