DIY man shoots himself in heart

Mr Kirk said he could feel the nail embedded in him

A DIY enthusiast from Staffordshire has offered thanks to the surgeons who saved his life after he shot himself in the heart with a nail gun.

Nigel Kirk, 53, was working on flooring in his Burton-on-Trent home when the accident happened.

Doctors at Leicester's Glenfield Hospital said the two-inch nail was embedded in his heart like a nail in a car tyre.

They said they could not just pull it out as it would have killed him.

Mr Kirk was working in his bathroom when the incident took place.

Pain in chest

"I was moving from one position to another when I tripped on a towel and I heard the gun go off," he said.

He then felt a pain in his chest.

Mr Kirk went on: "I thought there is something wrong here and I had a pretty good idea where the nail had gone.

"I could feel the nail embedded in me. There wasn't any blood."

A surgeon at the hospital said: "It was like a nail in a car tyre.

"When you take a nail from the tyre, the air will rush out. It would have been the same with his blood."