“Mr. Bergeson was extremely lucky,” says Bryan Whitson, a cardiac surgeon at Ohio State University, who was not involved in treating Bergeson. The heart doctor explains that Bergeson likely increased his chances of survival by not trying to remove the nail himself. That’s because the two main chambers of the heart, called ventricles, are under pressure. This force greatly increases the risk of bleeding from an open wound.
Bergeson has since recovered from the accident. He’s back running his farm and construction business. And he still uses nail guns—but he says he’s now a lot more careful with the potentially dangerous tools.