A man walked into an emergency room in Poland with a 15-inch piece of wood sticking out of his head.
Kamil Podwinski was doing some home improvements at his house in Konin when he somehow slipped and fell onto a sharp slice of lumber, Central European News reports.
The spear-like chunk of wood entered the 40-year-old’s face just below his eye socket and exited through the back of his neck.
Hospital staff couldn’t fit Podwinski into the X-ray machine because the shard of wood was too big. Doctors were so baffled over how to go about removing the splinter that they called in the local fire department for backup.
“We got a call asking us to help remove a piece of wood from a man’s face,” said fire department spokesman Sebastian Andrzejewski.
A calm Podwinski was later transferred to a specialty hospital in Poznan.
“When we arrived, it was sticking out at quite an angle and took quite a bit of effort to shorten it without causing further damage,” Andrzejewski said. “It wasn’t a case of just snapping off the end. It was tricky, but we managed it and he didn’t complain or seem worried at all.”
Doctors successfully removed the spike without any complications.
“We were able to remove it and the man is now recovering,” a hospital spokesman said. “It’s a miracle it didn’t take the eye out or cause serious damage.”