PESHTIGO, WISCONSIN — A Wisconsin man drove himself to hospital after he accidentally shooting himself with a nail gun — almost hitting his heart.

Peshtigo resident Doug Bergeson, 52, was working on a fireplace in a home he was building on a hot summer day in June when he accidentally dropped a nail gun, causing it to fire off a 3.5-inch long nail that ricocheted and penetrated his flesh at the speed of a .22 caliber bullet, ABC-affiliate WBAY-TV reported.

The nail landed so close to his heart that Bergeson said that he could see it move along with the beat of his pulse. However, Bergeson did not want to trouble anyone, and drove himself 12 miles to Bay Area Medical Center's emergency room. He later joked that he felt fine, other than having a little too much iron in his diet.

Bergeson was later transferred to Aurora Baycare Medical Center in Green Bay for surgery. Dr.Roitstein, who operated on Bergeson told WREG that Bergeson was lucky to be alive, and that the nail missed a main artery by a distance only as wide as the thickness of a piece of paper.

Lucky to be alive, Bergeson admitted that the accident was a close call, and that somebody must have been watching over him.