Rain Man
01-21-2005, 02:54 PM
I don't know if this was posted last week, but it got a lot of press coverage here in Denver. The x-ray is kind of cool.
I'd think that this guy is a Broncos fan, but then again a Broncos fan wouldn't be this tough.
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E53%257E2656432,00.html
Man goes 6 days with nail in skull
"Maybe I'll stick to hammers," homebuilder says
By Jinah Kim
9News
http://media.mnginteractive.com/media/paper36/0116nail1.jpg
He accidentally hit himself in the mouth with a nail gun and didn't think much of it.
But a construction worker in Breckenridge was in for the surprise of his life when X-rays taken after he complained of a minor toothache revealed a close call he never imagined.
"I'm like, 'What are you doing? Is this a joke?"' his wife, Katerina, recalled saying when she saw the X-ray. "And they were like, 'No, no, no, there's really a nail in there!"'
Patrick Lawler, 23, shot himself with his own nail gun - and didn't realize what had happened for six days.
The 3 1/4-inch nail entered through his upper right lip and stopped just inside the front part of his brain, missing his right eye by millimeters.
The X-rays he had at the dental office where his wife works showed the nail stretching from his teeth to his skull.
"The nail gun had recoiled, and it must have recoiled at a high turbulence, flipped 180 degrees and somehow shot or angled the nail through the front of my lip," Lawler said. "For six days we were icing it and taking Advil, thinking I got hit real hard, like a punch."
For six days, Patrick Lawler thought he’d only been bumped in the mouth by a nail gun he was using at a construction site in Breckenridge. Then, this X-ray taken for a toothache revealed a nail more than 3 inches long that Lawler had shot into his skull.
Co-worker Patricia Rexenes, who heard the accident and helped Lawler, said that usually when somebody screams and there's a nail gun involved, there's usually a nail.
But because he was coherent and certain it was just the gun that had hit him, she believed him, she said.
Initially, neither Lawler nor his doctors thought much of his toothaches and blurry vision. But after the X-rays, he was immediately rushed from his home to Littleton Adventist Hospital, where the chief neurosurgeon has worked on several similar cases.
"This is the second one we've seen in this hospital where the person was injured by the nail gun and didn't actually realize the nail had been imbedded in their skull," said Dr. Sean Markey. "But it's a pretty rare injury."
On Thursday night, a team of surgeons performed the six-hour operation. They cut open his skull to see exactly where the nail was. Then, they removed it through the path it went in, to minimize damaging other areas. Loss of sight, brain injury and death were possible outcomes.
"I was freaking out," Katerina Lawler said. "I didn't sleep for a long time."
But Friday morning, Patrick Lawler was back to his dry- humored self again - minus the nail.
The couple plans to frame the X-rays, CT scans and the nail to hang in their living room. As for his job building custom homes in Breckenridge, Lawler's not sure about going back.
"It definitely makes one think about a profession change, you know?" he said "I don't know. I might use a smaller (nail) gun.
"Or maybe I'll stick to hammers."
I'd think that this guy is a Broncos fan, but then again a Broncos fan wouldn't be this tough.
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E53%257E2656432,00.html
Man goes 6 days with nail in skull
"Maybe I'll stick to hammers," homebuilder says
By Jinah Kim
9News
http://media.mnginteractive.com/media/paper36/0116nail1.jpg
He accidentally hit himself in the mouth with a nail gun and didn't think much of it.
But a construction worker in Breckenridge was in for the surprise of his life when X-rays taken after he complained of a minor toothache revealed a close call he never imagined.
"I'm like, 'What are you doing? Is this a joke?"' his wife, Katerina, recalled saying when she saw the X-ray. "And they were like, 'No, no, no, there's really a nail in there!"'
Patrick Lawler, 23, shot himself with his own nail gun - and didn't realize what had happened for six days.
The 3 1/4-inch nail entered through his upper right lip and stopped just inside the front part of his brain, missing his right eye by millimeters.
The X-rays he had at the dental office where his wife works showed the nail stretching from his teeth to his skull.
"The nail gun had recoiled, and it must have recoiled at a high turbulence, flipped 180 degrees and somehow shot or angled the nail through the front of my lip," Lawler said. "For six days we were icing it and taking Advil, thinking I got hit real hard, like a punch."
For six days, Patrick Lawler thought he’d only been bumped in the mouth by a nail gun he was using at a construction site in Breckenridge. Then, this X-ray taken for a toothache revealed a nail more than 3 inches long that Lawler had shot into his skull.
Co-worker Patricia Rexenes, who heard the accident and helped Lawler, said that usually when somebody screams and there's a nail gun involved, there's usually a nail.
But because he was coherent and certain it was just the gun that had hit him, she believed him, she said.
Initially, neither Lawler nor his doctors thought much of his toothaches and blurry vision. But after the X-rays, he was immediately rushed from his home to Littleton Adventist Hospital, where the chief neurosurgeon has worked on several similar cases.
"This is the second one we've seen in this hospital where the person was injured by the nail gun and didn't actually realize the nail had been imbedded in their skull," said Dr. Sean Markey. "But it's a pretty rare injury."
On Thursday night, a team of surgeons performed the six-hour operation. They cut open his skull to see exactly where the nail was. Then, they removed it through the path it went in, to minimize damaging other areas. Loss of sight, brain injury and death were possible outcomes.
"I was freaking out," Katerina Lawler said. "I didn't sleep for a long time."
But Friday morning, Patrick Lawler was back to his dry- humored self again - minus the nail.
The couple plans to frame the X-rays, CT scans and the nail to hang in their living room. As for his job building custom homes in Breckenridge, Lawler's not sure about going back.
"It definitely makes one think about a profession change, you know?" he said "I don't know. I might use a smaller (nail) gun.
"Or maybe I'll stick to hammers."