RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- Doctors say a 24-year-old construction worker survived after a 6-foot metal bar fell from above and pierced his head.

Luiz Essinger of Rio de Janeiro's Miguel Couto Hospital tells the Globo TV network that doctors successfully withdrew the iron bar from Eduardo Leite's skull during a five-hour-long surgery.

He said Leite is lucid and shows no negative consequences after the operation. Essinger said Friday that "it really was a miracle" that Leite survived.

The bar fell from the fifth floor of a building under construction, went through Leite's hard hat, entered the back of his skull and exited between his eyes.

The accident and surgery took place on Wednesday.