Face impaled with tap after slip in bath

It's that sinking feeling. A tap accident to make the eyes water

Yi Zhao, 57, had slipped in the bath impaling his left eye on the tap at his home in Chongqing, central China

These amazing X-rays show how a man arrived with a tap and 16 inches of pipework stuck in his eye at a hospital's casualty unit.

But the terrified patient was forced to pull the tap out himself - because surgeons took three hours to send for a plumber to get it out.

Yi Zhao, 57, had slipped in the bath impaling his left eye on the tap at his home.

After firemen had cut the water pipe paramedics rushed him to hospital with the faucet still in place.

But while the doctors dithered for three hours over surgery, fed-up Zhao reached up and simply pulled out the tap himself.

I was tired of waiting and all they wanted to do was talk

"That caused him too much pain so we had to change the plan and first take an X-ray," said Dr. Hu Zhao of Daping Hospital in China.

"I felt I could stand the pain, and it wouldn't be a problem. It didn't look too complicated," said Zhao, who made his decision after studying the X-ray with his good eye.

Shamefaced medics immediately took a CT scan, which showed that Zhao had a fractured nose and facial bones, while amazingly his brain and his vision were not affected.

Doctors told Zhao he will make a full recovery but lectured him on the dangers of DIY surgery.

"I was tired of waiting and all they wanted to do was talk," he explained.