Steve Silva, seen here in camera footage on the left, was gripping 6-and-half-inch professional-grade shears during the accident. Photo / Boston Barber Co.
A Boston barber is lucky to be alive after a "freak accident" nearly took his life.
Speaking from hospital, 29-year-old Steve Silva said he was working on a customer's coif when his day suddenly took a nasty turn.
Silva accidentally stabbed himself following an unfortunate accident.
"When I went around the corner, I slipped and fell," Silva told the New York Post.
"Because my shears were around my finger, they were pointed inward and I broke my fall with my hands."
Silva was holding 16cm professional-grade shears in his right hand when he started feeling something weird.
He then looked down at his chest and pain set in.
"I looked down and I saw blood like a geyser spewing out," Silva said.
"I looked at my client and I said, 'I think I just stabbed myself.'"
Silva had slipped on a wet spot which sent him sliding, and his shears through his chest.
Two co-workers and Silva's customer sprung into action getting "right to work", applying pressure to his wounds before putting him on his side.
"I broke my fall with my hands and [the shears] are not going to fling off. Any barber or hairstylist knows they're wrapped around your finger pretty good.
"It was just a freak accident, it really was."
Silva was just millimetres from death, with the barber having to have open-heart surgery just an hour after the incident.
The shears entered his chest and narrowly missed his heart.
Silva said he hit the main artery to the lower ventricle, explaining the shears entered his chest between his rib and sternum.
"A bit to the left would've pierced my heart."
He has since been released from intensive care and will be off work for several weeks.
"I honestly feel lucky, but I feel like a little bit of a klutz that this happened I'd love to go back to work, but I don't think I have a date as of yet."
Despite his dice with death, Silva went out of his way to contact the customer to make sure his haircut was completed.
Experts warn it can be 'really, really damaging' to confidence and self-esteem.