Man Impaled In Car Accident Survives [VIDEO]

An ex-Marine named Andy Linn definitely has cheated death a few times. Linn served in Iraq where he survived roadside bombs. After his return in 2008, Linn was in a severe car accident in which he was hit by a drunk driver. He managed to walk away with relatively minor injuries.

But his latest accident has doctors shaking their heads in total disbelief. It happened on a visit to his parents' house in Las Vegas last Thanksgiving. Linn was simply taking a short jaunt in his car to get something to eat when he veered off the road and hit a chain link fence. One of the fence posts crashed through the car windshield and entered the man's face just above his mouth. It traveled straight out the right side of his neck and came to a stop after penetrating the back window of the car.

The post took out numerous teeth but managed to miss the spine, jugular and carotid arteries. As a result bleeding was minimized. Andy Linn even stayed awake as they extricated him from the vehicle by cutting off a section of the pipe and finally placing him on a gurney sitting up, pipe and all.

He ended up at University Medical Center in Nevada where doctors took about 50 minutes to carefully remove the pipe and do a tracheotomy so Linn could still breathe while being operated on. It so happens that one of the doctors who worked on him is the same doc who operated on Roy Horn of 'Siegfried and Roy' after that infamous tiger attack.

The doctors came away amazed and even stated that when they removed the pipe from Linn's neck, there was no severe bleeding. By the way he was awake throughout the accident, ambulance ride, and much of the surgery!

Andy Linn, a devout Mormon is taking it all in stride. He indicated that he wants to continue on with life and make the absolute best of it. In his words he will 'make a good thing out of a bad thing'. The human body is an amazing machine sometimes. (via today.msnbc.msn.com) Check out the video from the 'Today Show':