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American Morning

Construction Worker Counting Blessings After Surviving Freak Accident

Aired August 29, 2001 - 09:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We go to Phoenix, Arizona this morning in our "Look Across America." We'll get the lights on here in the meantime. A construction worker is counting his blessings after surviving a freak accident.

Gina Maravilla from our affiliate KTVK has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GINA MARAVILLA, KTVK REPORTER (on camera): How lucky do you consider yourself?

CHRISTIAN TURNER: I should have bought that lottery ticket.

MARAVILLA: For Powerball.

TURNER: That's right.

MARAVILLA (voice-over): Tonight, Christian Turner is counting his lucky stars, not because he's tough as nails, but because he's tougher.

TURNER: That was in me and it was buried all the way to the head.

MARAVILLA: Last week, Turner said he was at this Phoenix home constructing a swimming pool when the freak accident happened.

TURNER: I was running a bobcat at the time, and I put pressure on the nylon ropes, the nylon string that are attached to the layout nest, like this one, and from about 35 feet across the yard, one came out of the ground under pressure and came straight at me.

MARAVILLA (on camera): You said you saw it coming at you.

TURNER: I did see it, and I turned toward it, and that's when it caught me, where it caught me right there.

MARAVILLA: Doctors say if this nail would have entered Turner's face a centimeter in any other direction, he could have experienced serious problems and even could have been deadly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The nailed missed hitting any of his eye, mouth, nose, his ear or spine.

MARAVILLA: And his brain.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And his brain.

MARAVILLA: So what is it, eight lives that you have left?

TURNER: I'm hoping seven or eight.

MARAVILLA: After five days in the hospital, Turner is heading home. And in about a week, he says he'll be back on the job, with nothing more than a small scar on his cheek and a good story to tell.

TURNER: I will probably keep the X-ray prints for something to talk about. I think that one will go to the garbage can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: I bet there was a nasty tetanus shot that went along with that treatment.

Thanks to Gina Maravilla from affiliate KTVK for that report. That's our "Look Across America."

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