Driver survives being impaled by 3-inch wide metal pipe leaving doctors able to see right through his body
Horrific pictures show the piping - some 3 inches in diameter - going through the man’s chest, narrowly missing his heart. However, he miraculously managed to survive
A DRIVER miraculously survived being impaled by a metal pipe which went right through his body when he crashed his car in the Russian Arctic city of Norilsk.
Horrific pictures show the piping - some 3 inches in diameter - going through the man’s chest, narrowly missing his heart.
Astonishingly the unnamed motorist survived the freak early morning accident but is now fighting for his life in intensive care.
With the piping still attached, he was rushed to hospital for surgery where it was removed.
He lost one one lung because of the accident, according to local reports.
The man remains in a “grave” condition but doctors are optimistic he will survive, say hospital sources.
In one extraordinary picture from hospital, it is possible to see all the way through the pipe when it is still in his body.
It was reported initially that the man was drunk - a factor it was claimed may have helped him cope with the agonising pain.
But cops later clarified there was no evidence the 31-year-old was intoxicated.
He lost control of his car and it careered towards garages and two old pipes, said police. One pipe smashed his windscreen before impaling him, leaving blood all over the car.
Emergency workers "could not believe their eyes" and one said it was a "miracle" that the man survived.
The pipes are used to pump hot water in Norilsk, one of the world’s coldest cities.
The metal in the piping is three inches in diameter, said a specialist.
The man’s sister said today that he was “alive and in intensive care”.
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