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NEDERLAND — A man in Nederland is recovering after a piece of rebar pierced his skull last week.

The man, identified on a gofundme page as Michael Richard, fell from a first floor roof into the piece of rebar sticking out of the ground.

Nederland Fire Chief Terry Morton said the man was conscious, alert and oriented when first responders arrived around 3 p.m. Wednesday in the 2200 block of Avenue N.

The piece of metal pierced the man under the jaw and came out the back of his head.

Response to the call included stabilizing the patient, making sure the patient was breathing and making sure there the bleeding was not controlled.

“When we got there, he was breathing on his own, conscious and alert with minimal bleeding,” Morton said.

Morton said the rebar wouldn’t come out of the ground, so large bolt cutters were used to cut the rebar, which freed Richard and allowed him to stand up.

Once freed, he was brought to Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont.

Morton said the call was very out-of-the-ordinary, but the extraction was simple and the end outcome was much better than anybody expected.

Richard successfully underwent surgery, according to the gofundme page, and learned the rebar was millimeters from severing several vital arteries and damaging his esophagus and voice box.