'Unbelievably lucky' construction worker who shot nail into his head set to leave hospital and change jobs
Wednesday January 19, 2005
LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) A construction worker who shot himself in the head with a nail gun an accident he didn't discover until he went to the dentist with a nagging toothache said he'll change his line of work.
``I'll make pizzas,'' Patrick Lawler, 23, said Tuesday.
Lawler, who may be released from the hospital as early as Wednesday, was working on a house near Breckenridge when he accidentally fired the nail into his head. He said it felt like he had been hit with a steel baseball bat.
Lawler didn't realize the gun had fired a 4-inch nail through his mouth and 1{ inches into his brain until six days later, when he went to a dental office complaining of a toothache that just wouldn't go away.
An X-ray revealed the nail, and surgeons removed it last week.
``The nail could have been millimeters to one side and it would have severed an optic nerve, leaving him blind,'' said Dr. Sean Markey, who operated on Lawler. ``He's unbelievably lucky.''
Lawler said he doesn't know how he'll pay medical bills estimated to reach $100,000. He's uninsured.
``I was self-employed on the job,'' he said. ``I would have had to carry my own health insurance. But I didn't think I'd shoot myself with a nail, you know?''
