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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."
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This x-ray shows a three-inch nail in the head of an unidentified Houston carpenter. The nail missed half a dozen vital areas by an eighth of an inch. (AP Photo)
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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.
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