Man Finds Nail in Skull Six Days Later

[Tafiti]

Seriously, how does it go through your mouth, without you even knowing it? Unbelievable.

<snip>

LITTLETON, Colo. - A dentist found the source of the toothache Patrick Lawler was complaining about on the roof of his mouth: a four-inch nail the construction worker had unknowingly embedded in his skull six days earlier.



A nail gun backfired on Lawler, 23, on Jan. 6 while working in Breckenridge, a ski resort town in the central Colorado mountains. The tool sent a nail into a piece of wood nearby, but Lawler didn't realize a second nail had shot through his mouth, said his sister, Lisa Metcalse.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=816&e=1&u=/ap/20050117/ap_on_re_us/nail_gun_accident

[Osamasux]

1. I hate when that happens.

[SHRED]

2. Wow

Those crazy bushies will do anything for attention!

:silly:

[RC]

3. How can a nail gun backfire?

Internal combustion engines, yes. Nail guns? How?

[Tafiti]

4. No clue.

I didn't really think about it at first, since I don't really know the mechanics of nail guns, but yes, very strange indeed. I just can't get past the fact that he DIDN'T KNOW!!! How, exactly, does a nail fly through the roof of your mouth without you feeling at least SOMETHING? Crazy shit.

[No Mandate Here.]

6. The mechanics of the gun worked, but...

the nail hit something that caused it to deflect and go a different direction. Air guns have too many different things that can be fiddled with- the pressure, the sensitivity of the shoe that has to be depressed before the nail fires, and so forth. Older guns have the wonderful (sarcasm) feature that allows the operator to hold the trigger and 'skip' the gun along, firing a nail every time the shoe hits the wood. This is probably what happened, and the nail hit something other than wood.

Some manufacturers don't make them this way any more, and the sfaest ones are the cordless Paslode guns. You need to do two things before any nail will fire, and they have a bit less pressure on the nail, too.

I once had a nail go into my left ring finger, but other than a bit of arthritis there, it healed well. I saw the Xray of this guy. He is very lucky.

[ikojo]

5. This guy has no health insurance

I hope he gets it covered through work comp (such that it is).

He works yet has no health insurance. A shame.

[AngryAmish]

7. Some buddies of mine were Breckenridge construction workers

Well, they were ski bums who would get a job long enough to get intentinally get themselves hurt, get worker's comp then unemoployment, and then ski the rest of the season.

Most of the time they were quite sedated so I could imagine them not noticing a nail in their head.

[Aiptasia]

8. That's what the surfers do here...

Work construction four days a week then surf. They make mad money doing it, too. Especially roofing.

[ulysses]

9. hoooo-kay

How do you not notice this? :freak: