By ,
Published January 14, 2015
A 31-year-old elevator company worker is expected to fully recover after being hospitalized when a piece of falling rebar impaled him at a worksite in Denver. Officials are calling his recovery a miracle, MyFOXColorado reports.
The accident happened about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at the site of a residential high-rise construction project.
Denver Fire Department spokesman Phil Champagne says the man was working in the bottom of an elevator shaft when another worker accidentally kicked the reinforcing rod into the shaft from 200 feet above.
Champagne says the worker must have looked up just as the piece of metal was coming down, MyFOXColorado reports.
"When we arrived on scene we were shocked by what we found," Champagne told MyFOXColorado. He says the rebar went in the man's chest, down his body and into his leg.
"That was without a doubt a miracle that he survived," Champagne said.
The injured worker is an employee of Otis Elevator Company.
Swinerton Builders operations manager Dave Wermerskirchen says all safety precautions were in place when the accident occurred.
Vice President of Swinerton Builders, Ian Stevenson, says the rebar missed all the man's major organs. "The good news is he's expected to make a full recovery," Stevenson told MyFOXColorado.
The employee's name is not being released.
Click here to read more on this story from MyFOXColorado.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/miracle-survival-elevator-worker-impaled-by-metal-bar-expected-to-make-full-recovery