This is the gruesome injury a construction worker suffered when a seven foot iron rod impaled his skull.

Amazingly Mohammad Guddu survived the horrifying wound, despite the metal pole going right through his head and brain.

Doctors saved the 24-year-old construction worker's life by cutting open his skull bone to pull out the rod during five-hour long surgery.

Shocking x-rays show the rod totally embedded through his head.

Mr Guddu was mixing cement in Mumbai, in western India, when the rod accidentally fell from the fourth floor, piercing through the top of his head.

He was immediately taken to Sion Hospital by co-workers where a team of neurosurgeons conducted the emergency surgery.

While Mr Guddu is now out of danger and responding well to treatment, he has developed paralysis on the left side of his body. But doctors say he will fully recover in three months.

Dr Batuk Diyora, the neurosurgeon who led the team, said: "It is indeed a miracle that the man survived such an injury.

"It was a tricky surgery but what helped saving him was the fact that the rod had pierced a noneloquent region of his brain, an area that has no easily discernible cognitive, motor, or sensory functions and didn't damage the vital arteries that carry blood to the brain."

"The patient's brain stem wasn't damaged and the arteries carrying blood to the brain were also safe," the doctor continued. "The rod was sterilised to ensure there wasn't an infection."

Mr Guddu is likely to remain in hospital for at least two weeks.