Eduardo Leite, a Brazilian construction worker, has survived after a 2 m (six-foot) steel rod fell from above and pierced his head, doctors who treated him say.

Eduardo Leite was taken to a Rio de Janeiro hospital, where the rod was removed after five hours of surgery.

The doctors said he responded well to surgery, suffered no adverse consequences and has experienced little pain.

He narrowly escaped partial paralysis and loss of an eye, they added.

Eduardo Leite has survived after a 6-foot steel rod fell from above and pierced his head

The rod is said to have fallen from the fifth floor of a building under construction.

It pierced Eduardo Leite’s hard hat, then the back of his skull, before exiting between his eyes.

Luis Alexandre Essinger, chief of staff at the Miguel Couto hospital, said Eduardo Leite was conscious when he arrived there and explained what had happened to him.

“He was taken to the operating room, his skull was opened, they examined the brain and the surgeon decided to pull the metal bar out from the front in the same direction it entered the brain,” he said.

Eduardo Leite had “few complaints” after the surgery, Alexandre Essinger added, saying “it really was a miracle” that he survived.

Neurosurgeon Ruy Monteiro told local TV that the bar had entered a part of the brain with no specific major known function.

The victim is expected to stay in hospital for another two weeks, and will be given antibiotics to avoid risk of infection.