LITTLETON, Colo. "” A dentist found the source of the toothache Patrick Lawler (search) 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 (search), 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.
Following the accident, Lawler had what he thought was a minor toothache and blurry vision. On Wednesday, after painkillers and ice didn't ease the pain, he went to a dental office where his wife, Katerina, works.
"We all are friends, so I thought the (dentists) were joking ... then the doctor came out and said 'There's really a nail,"' Katerina Lawler said. "Patrick just broke down. I mean, he had been eating ice cream to help the swelling."
He was taken to a suburban Denver hospital, where he underwent a four-hour surgery. The nail had plunged 11/2 inches into his brain, barely missing his right eye, Metcalse said.
"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 embedded in their skull," neurosurgeon Sean Markey told KUSA-TV in Denver. "But it's a pretty rare injury."
Lawler was recovering Sunday in the hospital, where he was expected to spend several more days.
Despite his lack of medical insurance and hospital bills between $80,000 and $100,000, Katerina Lawler said her husband is in good spirits.
"The doctors said, 'If you're going to have a nail in the brain, that's the way you want it to be,"' she said. "He's the luckiest guy, ever."
__________________
Jesus Christ--The reason for the season!
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in English, thank a veteran.
If you're certain you know everything, there's little opportunity to learn anything.
Either this guy is biggest screaming idiot on earth or he's covering up for someone that popped a nail in his head.
That is the equivalent (in my mind) of "not knowing" that a lawnmower just cut your foot off ....................
Come on, it's no fairy tale that people have walked around not knowing they've been shot. Soldiers, cops, civilians alike. Sensory perception can be a weird thing sometimes.
Right, but your bones and mater's do, so does your jaw, your eye...
how about the blood?
this reminds me of the story of the guy that had 6 or more nails popped into his head in a 360 degree circumfrence and said that the nail gun did it on the way down from a fall.......... nonsense.
Dentist Finds 4-Inch Nail in Man's Skull
