A local Pennsylvania man experienced  a horrific chainsaw accident that lodged the saw into his neck, narrowly missing a vital artery.

James Valentine, 20, was on his job with Adler Tree Service in Gibsonia and was working on a pine tree when the chainsaw “kicked back,” Becca Valentine, Valentine’s sister, commented about her brother’s tragic accident.

Luckily, Valentine’s co-workers were able to detach the blade from its motor, still leaving the saw inside of his neck until the medical respondents arrived. They rushed him to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. During the ambulance ride, Valentine was awake and alert, according to hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Davis.

Valentine received thirty stitches, mostly to his shoulder and was only in surgery for an hour.

This kind of injury could affect the spinal cord and damage, even paralyze, a person. Luckily, in Valentine’s case, the saw barely missed a vital artery in the neck that delivers blood to the brain by a mere centimeter.

After Valentine was stabilized and put under, doctors removed the blade from his neck. There was not much blood loss. Paramedics say that Valentine is recovering well from his surgery and will remain in the hospital for a couple days.

Valentine is extremely lucky that his accident was not more frightening than it already was.  He could have been severely injured and might even have died if the blade would have gotten just a centimeter deeper into his neck. If he would have severed his artery, so much blood would have been lost that he would have lost consciousness in a minute. He would have died on the scene.

To his great fortune, Valentine is safe and healthy. He is alive and well and is extremely lucky.