A Wisconsin man who was working at his home accidentally shot a three-and-a-half inch framing nail into his heart.


Doug Bergeson was doing repair work on a fireplace in a home he's building when he fired a nail gun before he was ready. The three and a half inch nail bounced off some wood and pierced his heart, ABC 11 reports.

"It didn't really hurt. It just felt like it kind of stung me," Bergeson told the outlet. "I felt OK. I wasn't worried about the injury. I couldn't feel any pressure or blood building up."


According to the 52-year-old construction business owner, he said could see the nail moving with his heartbeat and knew he wasn't going to be able to do anymore work for the day. Instead of panicking, Bergeson said he washed up, hopped into his truck and drove for 10 minutes to the emergency room with the nail still stuck to his heart.

After examining x-rays of Bergeson's chest, he was rushed to Aurora BayCare Hospital for open heart surgery.


"I offered to drive myself," he joked about having to be transferred to another hospital. "But they wouldn't let me."

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Dr. Alexander Roitstein at the hospital told WREG that the framing nail was 1/16 of an inch, the width of a piece of paper, from hitting a major artery.



According to him, the nail missed a main artery in his heart by the thickness of a piece of paper. He now has a scar but no permanent damage
Bergeson spent two days in the hospital before he was released and he's already back to work.