darwin award honorable mention?

[fryguy]

ouch!

This X-ray picture shows a 5-centimeter nail stuck in an unidentified South Korean patient's skull Thursday, Dec. 2, 2004. According to a Seoul hospital, doctors found the nail after the man came to the hospital, complaining about a severe headache. They speculate that the nail stuck in the man's head four years ago in an accident but the man didn't know about it. The nail was removed in a surgery last Saturday. (AP Photo/Yonhap).

[one_true_leroy]

1. it doesn't seem like it was the result of stupidity.

[fryguy]

3. huh?!?

getting a nail stuck in one's head and walking around with it there for abour four years doesn't strike you as being stupid?

[one_true_leroy]

6. I'm an EMT and I've seen impalement wounds...

sometimes the impaled object, due to force of impact, displaces the skin during the accident. If the object (like the nail head) penetrates completely under the dermal layer and is flush with the underlying bone, the skin will translocate back to its original place. You (medic, doctor, patient) would see the hole in the skin, and it would look clean, but the object may be an inch or so away, under unbroken skin. Pain from something like that can sometimes be very difficult to localize correctly.

Edit: The X-ray DOES show it fluch to the bone, so it would be hard to detect by palpation.

[fryguy]

9. agreed with your assessment

that it could have gone a while without detection but the fact remains. i'm not saying the doctors messed up missing it, but wouldn't the patient have NOTICED the thing going several inches into his skull at the time it happened? maybe even a little trickle of blood or a slight discomfort to indicate something happened? I stub my toe on the door jam and I'm jumping around for a few minutes, I can't imagine that the guy is without nerve ending in his skull to detect the introduction of the nail.....

[one_true_leroy]

10. The brain itself has no nerves, so it can't feel pain.

As for the skin and bone, it would have been painful, but the pt would've written it off as normal healing... the bone would mend around it and the pt would disregard any lump as scar tissue, just like any piercing or screws/plates from sugury. In that area of the brain, there would be little or no damage caused by an object that slender. He might have been looked at on the scene, bandaged, Dr takes quick look at wound in ER, Rx's pain killer and antibios, and sent him on his way.

[parkening]

12. Actually, lots of nerves

just not pain sensing nerves. That's why they can do brain surgery without anesthetic.

If I remember bone does not have pain sensing nerves either. The pain you feel from a bone break is actually the surrounding tissue feeling your pain. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

So the guy probably felt something like a quick smack to the head and that's about it.

Gives new meaning to hitting the nail right on the head.

I have to imagine there's some serious rusting going on after four years in a saline environment. That can't be good.

[one_true_leroy]

17. true...

though anatomically very similar, I tend to consider neurons physiologically distinct from sensory nerves as my convetion. But many just call them all nerves.

[fryguy]

15. well i guess you're right

after your vigorous defense of this guy's intelligence it seems clear that he isn't stupid in any way. and not noticing the nail going into the head or realizing that it happened is perfectly understandable and reasonable behavior for a person....in fact, let's make him president!
:bounce:

[one_true_leroy]

16. didn't mean to be so vigorous...

I've always had to give pt's the benefit of the doubt. I've seen a lot of things that are initially some of the stupidest 'events' imaginable (at least in my mind... my day job is scientist, so I'm very skeptical), but pt's sometimes have a rationalization that could make sense if you are a) uninformed about basic laws of physics, chemistry, medicine (i.e., gasoline is NOT a good way to burn off warts) or b) drunk.

It easy to take for granted a basal knowledge base everyone shares, but it is shocking (sometimes literally) how universal knowledge really isn't.

[DrWeird]

7. Basically, you're saying he was too stupid to notice he had a nail in...

his head.

I think even stupid people would be smart enough to know that. Something else is going on. Brain damage perhaps.

[Cadence]

2. How does something like that happen

without you knowing about it!??

[tridim]

5. Maybe because the nail itself caused a bit of brain damage?

Could be.

[one_true_leroy]

8. look up at my second post.

[NoPasaran]

4. At least now he knows why he was always setting off metal detectors!

[tsakshaug]

11. could be worse

could be crayons up his nose.

[fryguy]

14. doh!

No TV and no beer make Homer something, something...

[PatriotGames]

13. How could you not know about a nail being stuck in your dome?