Bill Singleton is lucky to be alive; the chainsaw narrowly missed a main blood vessel in his neck. 

The 68-year-old was alone on his rural Mount Lonarch property chopping wood when the grisly accident happened. 

He was chopping a small branch in the shrubs and did not see a large tree trunk behind the branch.

When the chainsaw hit the trunk, the tip of the chainsaw kicked back and struck him in the face. 

Like a scene from a horror movie, the chainsaw sliced from his nose down through his mouth and jaw, narrowly missing his carotid artery, according to a doctor who performed surgery on him.

Incredibly, Mr Singleton was able to crawl to his car, wrap a towel around his face and drive 25 kilometres to the Beaufort Hospital, from where he was then flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Associate Professor Alf Nastri, head of maxillofacial surgery at the Royal Melbourne, said he believed Mr Singleton was initially not aware of how seriously he had injured himself.

"I think probably his lack of understanding of what he'd done to himself - sort of a pleasant ignorance - was probably the reason he crawled himself to the car and made it to the local hospital," Professor Nastri told Melbourne radio station 3AW.

"I think if he'd seen himself in the rear view mirror, I suspect he would have pulled over in shock.

"I think somewhat ignorance was the saviour of the day ... and good old Aussie guts."

Mr Singleton collapsed in the hospital's car park after he arrived and was immediately flown to Melbourne, where Professor Nastri and his team of surgeons were waiting.

"He basically just looked like someone who was a gunshot wound victim. He split the whole part of his face open," Professor Nastri told 3AW Mornings.

"It was like something out of a science fiction movie."

By that time, Mr Singleton has lost a significant amount of blood. Hospital staff performed a tracheotomy to ensure he could breathe and worked to stem the loss of blood.

It took half an hour to stabilise him, before surgeons and a plastic surgery team worked to "piece him back together".

Professor Nastri said the chainsaw blade had struck Mr Singleton beside his nose, then cut down his nose and knocked out his front teeth.

Then, the blade moved on to his lower jaw.

"It was deep in his neck and he managed to shelve it out, so that by the time it got down to his clavicles it was just a superficial wound," Professor Nastri said.

Mr Singleton was awake the whole time this was happening - roughly four seconds.

Fortunately, the surgery went well and Mr Singleton is already back on his rural property.

His speech is slowly improving and he is expected to undergo dental work to replace his lost and broken teeth.