A Melbourne carpenter who survived a nail gun shot directly to the heart has met with the team of expert paramedics who described his survival as "astounding".
L to R: MICA Phillip Williams, Paramedic Lia Wassell, patient Mark Hardeman, MICA Glenice Winter and MICA Al Gailey.
Cheltenham father-of-three Mark Hardeman was working at home in the garage last November when a moment of inattention led to a near-fatal mistake.
"I was making up at timber frame when I got distracted for just a moment and the nail shot out of the timber and into my right ventricle, "Mr Hardeman said.
"It felt like there was an elephant suddenly sitting on my chest."
Thankfully Mark's neighbour realised something was wrong, finding him slumped against the garage wall before calling Triple Zero (000).
"The last thing I remember was hearing sirens and then there was a paramedic standing over me who said, 'what have you done to yourself'," Mr Hardeman said.
A team of MICA and ALS paramedics provided life-saving care for Mr Hardeman, including administering high flow oxygen, analgesics and decompressing his lung twice before transporting him to The Alfred Hospital in a critical condition.
MICA paramedic Alan Gailey was part of the highly experienced team.
"It was an extremely rare case; in over 35 years at AV, I haven't come across a penetrating chest injury such as a nail gun, combined with the complexities in managing the patient," Mr Gailey said.
"The fact we didn't know if the nail had come close to, or penetrated the heart, meant we needed to take extreme care to avoid worsening the injury."
MICA Glenice Winter and patient Mark Hardeman.
Mr Hardeman underwent life-saving surgery at The Alfred before spending six days in a coma and another seven weeks recovering at home.
During the surgery, doctors identified another issue with his heart, which required additional surgery two months later.
Now back at work and continuing to recover well, Mr Hardeman was delighted to meet up with the paramedics who helped save his life.
"I am so grateful for what they all did and words cannot describe how thankful l am that I survived this," Mr Hardeman said.
MICA paramedic of 24 years, Glenice Winter said the case was incredibly memorable for the crew.
"Between us we have about 140 years' experience, and we were all amazed at the outcome, we didn't think it would be successful," she said.
