Posted Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:14pm AEST
Updated Mon Sep 14, 2009 1:15am AEST
A man who was shot in the back in a spear-fishing accident says medics told him he came within millimetres of death as the metre-long spear penetrated his chest.
Brett Clarke was swimming with friends at Cape Schanck on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula when he was struck by the spear.
Mr Clarke, who is now recovering in Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital, says the spear’s tip came within millimetres of his heart.
“It went in up through my ribs, up into my lungs, on the left-hand side there, and the nurses here say I must have someone looking out for me upstairs,” he said.
“It missed my heart by millimetres – I’m a very lucky boy.”
MICA Flight paramedic Kyle Lee arrived at the scene around noon on Sunday to find Mr Clarke badly injured on the beach.
“The spear was still hanging out of his back, about a metre-long steel rod,” Mr Lee said.
“It penetrated his internal organs and into his lung.
“He was conscious at the time and required a chest tube to drain air that was ccumulating in his lung that was making it difficult to breathe, as well as for some pain relief.”