Nail Gun Drama: Teen Shot In The Heart

An Argentinian carpenter who had a three-inch nail accidentally shot into his heart has become one of the few people to survive such an injury.

The unnamed 19-year-old was shot by a colleague wielding a nail gun while working in a wooden pallet factory in Canuelas, Buenos Aires.

The man was taken to El Cruce Nestor Kirchner Hospital after the accident last Monday.

An X-ray revealed the nail had pierced straight through his heart muscle to become lodged in one of its chambers.

Only three people in the world have survived this type of injury, according to the hospital's CEO, Arnaldo Medina.

And this is the first time it has happened in Argentina, he added.

Surgeons could not simply pull out the nail because it was "acting as a stopper and preventing a haemorrhage", said Mr Medina.

Instead the man's breast bone was carefully opened up to allow the surgeons to see and gently remove the nail.

The operation took more than two hours but the teenager has now “recovered well”, said lead surgeon Dr Marcelo Nahin.

He added that tens of thousands of US manual workers are seriously injured by nail guns each year.