A man lost five pints of blood from two tiny cuts when his flatmate accidentally dropped a glass of gin and tonic to the floor at their home.
Paul Blundell, 30, from Kennoway, Fife, did not feel the cut and was shocked to find a pool of blood around his feet after the glass severed an artery in his leg.
Shocking pictures show the floor covered in blood after the freak accident which almost cost Paul his life.
Paul luckily survived when paramedics managed to stick their fingers in his open wound to stem the blood before the artery was tied off, Daily Record reports.
Paul, an autism practitioner, said: "I was stood there and the blood was pumping out of me, it was so scary - to think that small cut could do that damage.
“I could have easily died if I had lost any more blood. I got to the hospital just in the nick of time, if I had been another five minutes I would have been dead."
It happened when flatmate Adam Johnston, 25, dropped the crystal glass on the floor.
The glass smashed and a shard of it hit Paul's ankle and ruptured a major artery in his leg, it is reported.
Adam, a web developer, said: "We were having a gin in the house and I just dropped the glass when I went to put it at the sink.
"I don't think either of us really realised what had happened or how bad it was initially until we saw the blood - it's like when you don't feel the pain until you see the injury."
Adam called for emergency services and while they were waiting, he tried to clean up the scene.
"It took a while to come so I got towels because the blood was everywhere and the towels were drenched," he explained.
"Every time we thought the bleeding had stopped it would start again."
Paul was eventually rushed to Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy and later transferred to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee for vascular surgery.
He was told that he lost around three pints of blood at home and another two pints in hospital.
Doctors put eight stitches in his ankle and bandaged the wound up until he recovers.
Paul struggles to walk up the stairs and is now using crutches to get around at the moment.
He said: "It’s amazing how debilitating a little cut can be and from the loss of blood.
"All the staff at both hospitals were absolutely amazing and extremely professional and I can't thank them enough."
