Boston barber speaks about freak accident that nearly killed him

The Boston barber who fell on his scissors Friday, piercing an artery in his heart, is opening up about his ordeal, and even throwing in a little humor.

“I joke that they’ll call me the Beacon Hill klutz,” Steve Silva told WBZ in a virtual interview from his hospital bed.

Silva was in the middle of giving a client a haircut when he slipped and fell with his scissors in hand. 

“When I slipped I put my hands out, my scissors were over my right ring finger extended in, and I put my hands out to catch my fall,” he said during the interview.

Blood started pouring from his chest and a colleague and client pressed paper towels and a regular towel onto the wound, he told the news station.

Silva didn’t realize how severe the injury was. EMTs rushed into the barbershop and whisked him away to a nearby hospital, where he underwent open-heart surgery, he said.

The accident may not have been as severe if the scissors had gone a bit to the right – they would’ve struck his sternum instead. A little to the left could’ve been deadly, as Silva said they would have punctured his heart, he told WBZ.

A GoFundMe set up to help Silva pay for his medical expenses, and lost wages from being out of work, had raised nearly $26,000 as of Thursday morning.

Silva joked with WBZ that he may buy some slip-resistant shoes.

“A half inch to the left.” Barber Steve Silva says that was the margin between serious and life threatening as shears punctured his chest in a freak fall on the job. His story on #wbz@5:30 pic.twitter.com/Ndr7DJ7Kjp

— Beth Germano (@BethWBZ) February 17, 2021

Want to leave a comment?

Create an Account Or sign in to your account

To comment, please create a screen name in your profile

To comment, please verify your email address

Conversation

This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com