By SARAH SKIDMORE, Associated Press Writer
Fri Apr 21, 10:44 PM ET

PORTLAND, Ore. - An Oregon man who went to a hospital complaining of a headache was found to have 12 nails embedded in his skull from a suicide attempt with a nail gun, doctors say.

Surgeons removed the nails with needle-nosed pliers and a drill, and the man survived with no serious lasting effects, according to a report on the medical oddity in the current issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery.

The unidentified 33-year-old man was suicidal and high on methamphetamine last year when he fired the nails — up to 2 inches in length — into his head one by one.

The nails were not visible when doctors first examined the man in the emergency room of an unidentified Oregon hospital a day later. Doctors were surprised when X-rays revealed six nails clustered between his right eye and ear, two below his right ear and four on the left side of his head.

The study did not say how long the nails were, and a hospital spokeswoman refused to release that information. A photo published in the study suggests the nails range from 1 1/2 to 2 inches long.

No one before is known to have survived after intentionally firing so many foreign objects into the head, according to the report, written by Dr. G. Alexander West, the neurosurgeon who oversaw the treatment of the patient.

The man at first told doctors he had had a nail gun accident, but later admitted it was a suicide attempt.

The nails came close to major blood vessels and the brain stem but did not pierce them. The patient was in remarkably good condition when he was transferred to Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, where the nails were removed.

The patient was later transferred to psychiatric care and stayed under court order for nearly a month before leaving against doctors' orders.

That happened here too a while ago. This guy had a serious accident with a table saw,(lost his hand) and he tried to take himself out, the ambulance pi8cked him up, saved him and his hand.

Now who in the hell would put nails into their head?

Brett.

That`s one hell of an act to follow!
Ken

Not for you Ken...you could remove them with your teeth and spit them out at a target...then send the idiot to me and I'll dress him up for a new Zibit you can haul around. It'll go big in Wales.

BTW: Time for a Report in my eMail???

My father (also a physician) still tells a story that has become ledgend in our family. When he was chief resident at Bellvue in NYC, a man cam into the ER with a nail entering the top of his head. He had hammered it in. He didn't complain about that the nail was painful and could they remove it. Instead he was angry that he was getting the wrong radio station and asked if they could "tune him".

On another note: I have, in my collection of X-rays, an image of an unfortunate victim of a nailgun accident. The xray shows the nail in the side of his head. I also published:

http://www.medical.philips.com/main/news......tale.pdf

Similar to the nail gun "accident" in South America a few years ago. A consturction worker "fell" a couple stories from a building and "landed" on the nail gun which "accidentally" fired 4 or 5 nails (6" long ones!) into his head. He recovered with no adverse problems. I used to work for a contractor and have used nail guns in roofing, decking, flooring, etc. There is a safety mechanism that must be applied before a single shot goes out. Once the air pressure ejects the nail, there is a backup saftey that stops the gun from misfiring or rapid fire. Basically if you squeeze the trigger, nothing happens unless the machine is applied to a hard surface. If you continue to squeeze after the nail is ejected, the unit opens the pneumatic line and all you get is air leaking out, it will not advance the next nail. So, most on site "accidents" usually can be chalked up to some unfortunate idiot p!ss!ng off the foreman or an imbalanced co-worker.