Man Survives Drill Through Skull

Ron Hunt's friends have good reason to call him the "Miracle Man."

The construction worker lost an eye but survived a freak accident without brain damage after falling from a ladder and onto an 18-inch-long drill bit that impaled his skull.

"I'm very fortunate I'm not paralyzed or dead," the 41-year-old electrician said Friday.

The 1.5-inch diameter chip auger drill bit was still in his head when his brother, Chris Hunt, and nephew, Ben, met him in a hospital emergency room in Reno, Nevada.

While drilling above his head on Aug. 15, the six-foot ladder Ron Hunt was standing on started to wobble so he tossed the drill aside — as construction workers are trained to do.

But he fell off the ladder face-first and onto the drill.

"I ran my hands up the drill bit, up to my eye, and put my other hand in the back of my head and felt it coming through the back of my head," he said. "And that's where pretty much the shock set in."

Doctors said the drill bit pushed his brain aside rather than pushing into it, which likely would have caused serious brain damage or death. After weighing their options, doctors essentially unscrewed the bit to remove it.

His nephew thinks he'll be able to laugh about it someday.

"It's just going to be one of those stories," Ben Hunt said. "He'll joke around with his glass eye and pop it out."