Man Unknowingly Drives Nail Through The Roof of His Mouth, Pierces Brain
If you're a construction worker and you've been having trouble with a piercing toothache lately, you might want to get it treated as soon as possible - it could actually be a 4-inch nail piercing through the roof of your mouth. In a story begging to be included in this year's "What the Fuck?" list, 23-year-old Patrick Lawler ended up in the emergency room of a suburban Denver hospital after going to his dentist to treat what he thought was a minor toothache.
Lawler was working at a construction site in Breckenridge when a nail gun he was using backfired, sending a nail into a nearby piece of wood. Unbeknownst to Lawler, however, a second nail shot upward into his mouth with so much force that it plunged an inch and a half into his brain, barely avoiding his right eye. He began experiencing pain and blurred vision after the accident (go figure) and attempted to treat himself with painkillers and ice, thinking that the problem was with his teeth. When that didn't work, he finally went to the dentist's office, where his wife works, and got the surprise of his life.
"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."
After the nail was discovered Lawler was rushed to the hospital, where doctors spent 4 hours carefully removing it. Whats really remarkable about Lawlers case is that, according to the doctor who operated on him, its not even the first time hes seen something like this:
"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 imbedded in their skull," neurosurgeon Sean Markey told KUSA-TV in Denver. "But it's a pretty rare injury."
Lawlers surgery was a success, and he is expected to spend the next few days recuperating in the hospital, wondering how in the fuck a nail could have entered his mouth and punctured his brain without him noticing it, and preparing himself for the merciless ribbing that hes going to get when he returns to work.
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