Updated

A British man was dragged through a gap the width of a CD case in a workplace accident, The Sun reported Thursday.

Matthew Lowe, 25, was grabbed by a high-powered conveyor system at the Compass Engineering factory where he worked in Barnsley, northern England, and squeezed through a five-inch gap from his shoulders to his feet.

He broke his back, ruptured his stomach and bowel, shattered his pelvis and fractured both hips, his right arm and several ribs.

"I don't know how I'm alive," said the father of one, whose head was pulled through a wider space. "I knew what was happening to me so just relaxed and hoped for the best. I really thought it was the end -- I was completely trapped. The machine crushed my body, ripped my clothes to shreds and spat me out. I was still alive but had no idea how."

His girlfriend, 29-year-old Kim Swift -- mother to the couple's five-year-old daughter Evie -- was told to "expect the worst" when she arrived to see him in the hospital.

But Lowe is now back working for the same company, which was set to appear in court Thursday over alleged health and safety breaches, along with the conveyor's German installers.

Although he has few outward scars, he is a mass of metal on the inside since surgeons bolted, plated and screwed him back together.

Click here to read more on this story from the Sun.