A man in New York furious at discovering his addict son's heroin stash almost killed himself when he shot it up in an attempt to teach his son a lesson.

Sergey Gnatovskiy, 45, overdosed after injecting the drug and needed CPR from his son after he passed out on the family's living room floor.

Mr Gnatovskiy was taken to hospital and subsequently said he did not remember much of what happened.

“I told him if you’re not going to stop, I will do the same as you do,” Mr Gnatovskiy told The New York Post.

The stunt appears to have worked, at least temporarily. His 23-year-old son Maykl said he was so frightened by the ordeal that he is checking back into rehab.

“After seeing this I definitely want to go. I’ve been doing this since I was 15. I’m 23 now, I can’t keep doing this,” he said.