BY TSC STAFF

Cheng Fenghua, a 48-year-old construction worker from Anqing, China, has survived being hit with a metal bar that penetrated three inches into her skull, reports the Daily Mail.

The accident occurred when the 13-foot-long bar was dropped off of the top of a three-story building at the site where Cheng was working. A co-worker told the source that he saw something fall and then heard someone scream.

“When I looked closely I was shocked as a long steel bar was buried in Cheng’s head,” he said.

Cheng’s fellow construction workers then sawed the bar down so that it was just eight inches long, allowing her to fit into the ambulance that soon arrived on the scene.

When Cheng was taken to the hospital, doctors took an x-ray and found that the metal bar had penetrated more than three inches into her head, only narrowly missing her brain stem.

“If it had gone a tiny bit deeper the patient would have died instantly,” Dr. Yang Youzhong, one of Cheng’s surgeons, told the source.

Cheng then underwent emergency surgery, where doctors were able to take the rod out of her skull. Following the operation, she remained in serious condition, although her life is no longer considered to be in danger.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 244,200 non-fatal workplace injuries occurred in the construction sector in the United States in 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

People who have survived a workplace injury can take advantage of the resources provided by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.