A 31-year-old German construction worker was left in pain when he slipped from a ladder, causing the handle of a shovel to lodge itself 20 inches up his bum.

Impaled by the sharp object, Michael Mayer was rushed to a hospital in Munich by surprised paramedics before he suffered too much blood loss. The impalement caused massive internal bleeding, but surgeons were able to cut away the handle with an angle grinder and remove it from his insides.

“It was a million-to-one shot accident,” said a workmate. “He was up the ladder and lost his footing and, as he fell, one of those American-style spades without a grip on the end went right up his bum.

“It was a sickening scream,” he added.

Surgeons say that the man underwent a surgery to remove the remaining section of the handle and described his condition as stable. He is expected to recover.

Source: Austrian Times