Eugene Rakow, a self-employed carpenter, narrowly escaped death after shooting himself in the heart with a nail gun on Friday.<br /><br />Rakow was building a deck on a neighbor's house, using a nail gun. He explained in an interview with Fox 9 that he was working with the gun at about chest level. He pulled the trigger to dispatch a nail, which he did successfully, then somehow, the nail gun jumped and he nailed himself in the chest. <br /><br />The nail was 3-and-a-half inches long and went through the heart completely, according to surgeon, Dr. Louis Louis. The nail missed the coronary artery by just 2 mm. Dr. Louis also explained that because the head of the nail was caught on Rakow's sternum, the nail couldn't move any deeper into the chest, preventing greater injury.<br /><br />Immediately after the incident, Rakow telephoned Carmen, his wife of 25 years with whom he has seven children, and she rushed him to a hospital. The staff there were not equipped to treat him and he was sent to Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, where a surgery was performed to remove the nail. As a souvenir of the ordeal, Rakow was given the nail to keep.<br /><br />Rakow is now home with his family and recovering. However, he will not be able to work for several months and consequently faces a new challenge: He is uninsured. His wife and teenage children are now looking for ways to pay the bills and one of his daughters has set up a PayPal account to accept donations. <br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />TomoNews is your daily source for top animated news. We've combined animation and video footage with a snarky personality to bring you the biggest and best stories from around the world. <br /><br />For news that's fun and never boring, visit our channel:<br />https://www.youtube.com/user/TomoNewsUS<br /><br />Subscribe to stay updated on all the top stories:<br />http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=TomoNewsUS<br /><br />Stay connected with us here:<br />Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS<br />Twitter @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS<br />Google+ http://gplus.to/TomoNewsUS
