The inch-thick pole entered his left thigh near his buttock, went through his leg and into his stomach, up through his chest and exited close to his right nipple.

The 37-year-old father-to-be was airlifted to hospital where doctors took four hours to gingerly tug the rod out - and found it had somehow missed every one of 11 vital organs along its path.

Keith, who has made a full recovery, told yesterday of the nightmare moment he slipped while working on the third floor of the building and fell back on to the rod.

 He said: "I lost my footing and was suddenly in unbelievable pain. I can remember my mates supporting my weight and one paramedic talking to me all the time and giving me morphine.

"After that it all becomes a blur. I can recall being gently lifted into the air ambulance.

At that point I passed out. I came round in hospital but that is all a bit hazy.

"What I do remember is waking up the next day once the rod had been removed with all the staff telling me I was the luckiest man alive.

"They said if I didn't do the lottery I ought to start now."

Keith, whose wife Orla is expecting their first child, has suffered no lasting ill-effects from the accident in Birmingham apart from a slight tingling and numbness in his left leg.

He has been off work since the summer but medics yesterday gave him the all clear to return to work as a carpenter.

The operation that saved Keith's life was filmed by an ITV crew and will be screened tonight in some regions on The Real ER.

Surgeon Rajiv Vohra, 53, said: "In the rod's path were 10 or 11 major structures. Damage to any one could potentially have been life-threatening. Mr Sweeney is extremely lucky."

http://www.mirror.co.uk