Carpenter nailed in the head a test case
By Associated Press, 08/02/01
HOUSTON -- A doctor who examined the X-ray says a 56-year-old carpenter "has got to be the luckiest guy in the world."
When the man walked into the emergency room in Houston last year, only the head of a three-inch nail could be seen against the red inside surface of his lower eyelid. The eyelid was pinned open. A co-worker had accidentally fired the nail from his nail gun into the man's face.
An X-ray and CAT scan revealed that the nail had missed half a dozen vital areas by just an eighth of an inch. He came out of the accident with no brain or eye damage. His case is now being used in medical classes, and the X-ray has been published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
The nail, by the way, broke the board it was fired into. His doctor says it apparently slowed the nail down just enough to keep it from going into the man's brain stem.
From a law firm's personal injury website. Not the odd title for this piece.
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Investigation Launched Into Deaths Involving Utility Terrain Vehicles
Personal Injury attorney Roger Gordon filed suit on behalf of a carpenter whose nail gun accidentally discharged, but who didn't realize for two weeks that the 3-inch nail had penetrated his brain.
The 55-year-old journeyman was installing skylights when his nail gun recoiled and struck his upper lip, causing profuse bleeding. At the hospital, physicians sutured the cut, unaware that a nail had penetrated the carpenter's head. He went back to work, but returned to the hospital after experiencing severe headaches and dizziness for two weeks. Surgeons removed the nail once an x-ray revealed it, but our client had suffered significant neuro-cognitive injuries.
The defectively designed nail gun uses a contact-trip firing system that allows a nail to be fired if it touches a surface while the trigger is pulled back.
"Our client will never work again in an industry that supported him for nearly 40 years," said attorney Gordon. "He is permanently disabled by intense headaches, extreme fatigue, dizziness, numbness in his lower limbs and severe depression."
Gordon has represented many clients in workplace-injury and defective product lawsuits, and has won numerous multi-million-dollar verdicts for clients.
Attorney Adam Dombchik is handling the carpenter's Workers' Compensation claim. The law firm has a long history of coordinating successful outcomes in similar third-party cases where there are both a personal injury lawsuit and a Workers' Comp claim.
0 Replies
mismi
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Wed 31 Aug, 2011 03:18 pm
@JTT,
It's fascinating. Gross but fascinating. Thanks for the posts JTT
0 Replies
mismi
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Wed 31 Aug, 2011 03:19 pm
@jespah,
Yep...not for the faint of heart that stuff.
0 Replies
mismi
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Wed 31 Aug, 2011 03:20 pm
@JTT,
The one with the guy smiling and waving at the camera with a nail stuck in his thigh cracked me up. He must have some good drugs.
After looking at all those pics - I am thinking nail guns are a bad idea.
This is called Globe Luxation and some people can manipulate the flow of blood and/or the muscles in their eyes to push them forward and backward at will. The eye is attached to the optic nerve and will not “fall out” but repeating this exercise is not recommend as it can result in corneal and other eye abrasions, dry eyes and other problems. People with collagen vascular diseases can sometimes perform this unpleasant feat as well.
Those pics certainly made my belly churn a bit. ehhh
The eyeball thing is fascinating. Truly amazing. I would think it would be a bad idea to do that too much - would be scared of detaching something. yuck.
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