It seems that the way into a man's heart is not through his stomach, but through a nail. That's what one Long Island couple learned the hard way when Eric Carman was impaled with a nail.

The freak accident occurred at the Carman home. Eric Carman was mowing his lawn when he felt something hit his chest. Thinking that it was a stone or a cracked rib, Carman continued working on his lawn. When he looked down at his chest though, he saw that his shirt was covered in blood, prompting Carman to think that it was perhaps more serious than he'd thought.

But when he re-entered his house, his wife Louisa was not so calm. She said that she became nervous, spotting a tiny hole in his shirt the size of a small pebble. She convinced him to go to the hospital, but Carman insisted on first taking a shower, where he noticed a hole in his chest and a bump that was about half the size of a ping pong ball.

When Eric emerged from the shower, Louisa noticed that he was significantly weaker. This was strange for him. Her now 75-year-old husband is in excellent shape: he walks five miles a day, has a standing heart rate of 60, and counted lawn mowing as good exercise. He also never complained about pain.

But Carman insisted that they did not need an ambulance, so Louisa drove him to the hospital. Because Carman had no outward appearance of injury compared to the other patients, he was relegated to wait until a perceptive nurse noticed him. Doctors performed a CAT scan, where they noticed a finishing nail that had penetrated his heart. After a two-hour surgery, Carman survived and has regained his health.

He did make one large change in his life though: after years of Louisa asking him to hire some landscapers, he finally did.

Carman recounted the incident on an episode of Discovery Fit & Health's program "I Was Impaled," a series about bizarre accidents.

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