A TREE surgeon in Britain was back at work today despite nearly beheading himself with a chainsaw while 7m up a tree in April.

Tom Connelly told the Wisbech Standard that the quick reactions of his colleagues saved his life after he fell on the saw and it cut through at least a third of his neck, leaving him almost holding his own head on.

The 21-year-old said, "It was an everyday job, but I slipped off my chainsaw irons onto my saw. I managed to hit it with my neck, unfortunately, severing most of the vessels. I cut through my jugular vein."

He told the Daily Mail he went into shock immediately after the gruesome accident. "But the adrenaline kicked in so I didn't actually feel any pain. I screamed for help and my colleagues quickly got me out of the tree.

"My friend Rob told me to put my hand across my throat and hold on to my head and it was then I realized my neck was bleeding too. I later realized I'd nearly cut my head off, so I am incredibly lucky to be here today."

A medic who attended the scene in Guyhirn, a small village near the town of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, England, said, "When we got there, there was a young man with a very large wound in the side of his neck with, literally, blood spurting out of it."

Mr Connelly was flown by helicopter to the hospital for 10 hours of emergency surgery and doctors later told him he had been only a fraction away from cutting his carotid artery - which would have certainly killed him.

From Clophill in Bedfordshire, Mr Connelly has had nerve grafts and may regain 90 per cent mobility in his left arm. Although he is back at work, he has not been up a tree since the accident.

His mother Debbie, 43, told the Mail, "He has always been accident-prone."