- Hardeep Singh, 42, was driving when car tyre burst and car went into a barrier
- The crash sent a six-foot long and four-inch thick rod through Hardeep’s chest
- Doctors were able to remove the rod after a nearly five-hour operation
- They said rod missed his heart by half a centimetre, did not impact vital organs
- WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
An Indian man has miraculously survived after a car accident sent a six-foot long iron rod piercing through his chest.
Hardeep Singh, 42, was driving his mini-truck in Bathinda, India on Thursday, when one of the truck’s tyres burst and caused the vehicle to veer off into a barrier.
The four-inch thick rod impaled Hardeep, ripping a huge hole through his chest cavity and breaking his rib and scapula.
Incredibly, Hardeep survived the injury and was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors managed to remove the rod from his body after a four and a half hour operation.
Hardeep, who lives in Abohar and works for India’s largest car manufacturer Tata Motors, was driving to work along the Bathinda-Bhucho Mandi road on Thursday at 1:30pm local time when a burst tyre caused the car to veer off course.
He was unable to recover the car which span off the road and hit a barrier.
A six-foot long and four-inch thick iron rod was dislodged in the crash and speared through Hardeep’s chest, but incredibly missed all of his vital organs.
The accident was spotted by another driver, who along with locals managed to help the injured Hardeep into his car and drove him to a nearby hospital just off the Bathinda-Bhucho Mandi road.
Upon arrival, Hardeep was still conscious despite being in a great deal of pain, but doctors were unable to conduct an x-ray due to the sheer size of the rod that had penetrated his chest.
Doctors reported that Hardeep was chanting ‘Waheguru’ as he entered the hospital, the Sikh word for God, and said that Waheguru would not let anything happen to him as he had not harmed anyone in his life.
After an operation of about four-and-a-half hours, the doctors were able to use high-strength cutters to saw off the end of the rod and remove it, before stemming the blood.
A CT scan revealed that he suffered a broken rib and scapula from the impact, but that none of his organs had been damaged.
Hardeep was left with a four-inch hole in his chest and was put on a ventilator as a precaution to aid his breathing as he recovered from the severe trauma, but doctors say he is now ‘out of danger’.
The accident occurred roughly 70 miles from the border of Pakistan in the north-western Indian state of Punjab.
Doctors said that Hardeep was chanting ‘Waheguru, Waheguru’ when he entered the hospital.
Waheguru, or ‘wondrous enlightener’, is the most widely used term for God by Sikhs.
Punjab is the only state in India where Sikhism is the majority faith. According to the Times of India, there are an estimated 20.8 millions Sikhs in India, but this makes up less than two per-cent of India’s total population.
