LYNN, Mass. (WHDH) -- A Lynn man was injured when a utility pole was knocked down and fell on top of him during Superstorm Sandy.

Just feet from Chris Murray’s front door, Hurricane Sandy ripped a giant oak tree right out of the ground. The impact set off a chain reaction that sent a utility pole crashing down on him.

“The pole came down at an angle and struck me right here,” Murray said.

Murray had just put his two young children in the car. They were off to take a look at what Sandy was stirring up. But before he got in the driver's seat, he saw the worst of her, first hand.

“The big giant oak tree, I saw it slowly coming over with the wind. As it fell it got faster and faster than I saw it hit the wires,” Murray said.

The tree barely missed a neighbor's house down the block, but crushed her truck.

“I heard a crack then my car alarm went off. There’s an enormous tree from right here down on top of both our vehicles,” said a neighbor.

The tumbling tree took down one utility pole, then snapped another in half, right where Murray was standing.

“I really thought it was my brain coming out from the impact I had taken,” Murray said.

While his kids were safe in the car, Murray was left badly hurt with a gash in his head, six broken ribs, a punctured lung, and two broken bones in his neck.

After seven days in the hospital, Murray returned home thankful to be alive. His only regret was heading out in the storm.

“When they say stay home, they mean it,” Murray said.

Murray was knocked down in the middle of the street. A neighbor came by and brought him to a hospital.