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Southern California man who had six nails in skull recovering
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Union-Tribune Publishing Co. ^
| May 5, 2004
Posted on 05/05/2004 6:14:34 PM PDT by Jagdgewehr
LOS ANGELES A man who had six nails driven into his head by a nail gun in a construction accident said Wednesday that he is lucky to be alive. Doctors said he should make a full recovery.
Isidro Mejia, 39, made his first public appearance since he was taken to the hospital on April 19. Sitting in a wheelchair, the Lancaster man said in Spanish that he didn't remember much about the accident.
"He says that he's very happy to be alive," said Dr. Rafael Quinonez, a neurosurgeon who removed the nails at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills. "And he told me this morning that he thought he was going to die. He was happy when he opened his eyes and he saw that he's still with us."
Quinonez said Mejia told authorities he remembered a "shock" to the back of his neck and little else before passing out.
Mejia is walking with minimal assistance and he speaks somewhat slowly because his brain's speech center was affected, but his progress has been "remarkable," and with rehabilitation therapy he should make a full recovery, Quinonez said.
"He is basically normal," he said, calling the recovery "close to a miracle."
Mejia was atop an unfinished home in the Antelope Valley when he fell onto a co-worker who was using the nail gun, Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Mark Newlands said.
The two men tried to grab each to keep from falling to the ground. At some point, the nail gun discharged and drove six nails into Mejia's face, neck and skull.
"They're extremely powerful," Newlands said. "They've got to drive through three-quarter-inch plywood."
The co-worker was not cited.
"There was no criminal act involved," Newlands said.
Mejia and the other man apparently were atop wooden trusses and were helping secure the frame of the house when Mejia lost his balance, fell into the other man and then plunged 15 feet to the ground, said Dean Fryer of the state's Division of Occupational Health and Safety, which is investigating the accident.
The other worker grabbed a beam that broke his fall, he added.
Mejia was flown to the hospital.
Quinonez said three of the 3½-long nails entered Mejia's brain and one entered his spine below the base of his skull.
They missed his brain stem and spinal cord by fractions of an inch, preventing paralysis or death. One entered his left ear but missed the eardrum, the doctor said.
"He was in a coma," Quinonez said. "We did not have too much hope that he would survive, but we did it and he survived."
Five nails were removed the same day. The sixth, which went into his ear and into tissue under his skull, was trickier to reach safely, Quinonez said. It was removed on April 23, the hospital said.
TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: accident; california; construction; fall; nails; ouch; skull; southern
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Ouch
To: Jagdgewehr
the co worker claimed he was cleaning his nail gun when it suddenly went off.
2
posted on
05/05/2004 6:16:44 PM PDT
by
cripplecreek
(you tell em i'm commin.... and hells commin with me.)
To: Jagdgewehr
Wow
3
posted on
05/05/2004 6:19:29 PM PDT
by
yonif
("So perish all Thine enemies, O the Lord" - Judges 5:31)
Comment #4 Removed by Moderator
To: cripplecreek
"They're extremely powerful," Newlands said. "They've got to drive through three-quarter-inch plywood." My question is this, do citizens really need this kind of fire power? After all, what use is this for hunting?
5
posted on
05/05/2004 6:22:36 PM PDT
by
Jagdgewehr
( Warning: content may cause emotional stress to over-sensitive Liberals.)
To: billorites
Would I be horribly incorrect, politically speaking, to inquire as to whether this poor, unfortunate schmoo was an American citizen or a wetback? Well, I thought the same thing. Living in this county, I assume many are "undocumented migrant workers."
6
posted on
05/05/2004 6:25:41 PM PDT
by
Jagdgewehr
( Warning: content may cause emotional stress to over-sensitive Liberals.)
To: Jagdgewehr
There ought to be a ban on these full auto nail drivers.
7
posted on
05/05/2004 6:26:15 PM PDT
by
paul51
To: Jagdgewehr
Liberals will now propose a seven day waiting period on purchases of all nail guns.
8
posted on
05/05/2004 6:28:34 PM PDT
by
reagan_fanatic
(Liberalism is the end result of too many people peeing in the gene pool.)
To: Jagdgewehr
9
posted on
05/05/2004 6:29:23 PM PDT
by
martin_fierro
(Chat is my milieu)
To: Jagdgewehr
Was that a full-auto nail gun or what.....jeeze.
10
posted on
05/05/2004 6:31:01 PM PDT
by
Husker24
Comment #11 Removed by Moderator
To: Jagdgewehr
Why not ask the same question about the neurosurgeon?
To: Jagdgewehr
A man who had six nails driven into his head by a nail gun...I hate it when that happens.
13
posted on
05/05/2004 6:34:35 PM PDT
by
southernnorthcarolina
(I've told you a billion times: stop exaggerating!)
To: Husker24
Trigger locks, trigger locks, trigger locks.
14
posted on
05/05/2004 6:34:38 PM PDT
by
TASMANIANRED
(What do they call children in Palestine? Unexploded ordinance)
To: paul51
There ought to be a ban on these full auto nail drivers. Yes. In the words of the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan commenting on the AWB, "These guns are very dangerous. You drop them on the ground and they spray bullets everywhere!"
15
posted on
05/05/2004 6:37:00 PM PDT
by
Jagdgewehr
( Warning: content may cause emotional stress to over-sensitive Liberals.)
To: Jagdgewehr
Take the nail guns away from the carpenters and only the criminals will have nail guns...
16
posted on
05/05/2004 6:40:30 PM PDT
by
ColoradoSlim
(Shoot first, ask questions later.)
To: Jagdgewehr
An episode of "This Old House" gone terribly, terribly wrong
17
posted on
05/05/2004 6:41:56 PM PDT
by
ColoradoSlim
(Shoot first, ask questions later.)
To: martin_fierro
LOL
18
posted on
05/05/2004 6:42:26 PM PDT
by
Jagdgewehr
( Warning: content may cause emotional stress to over-sensitive Liberals.)
To: Jagdgewehr
How in the hell did he get nailed six times? The guns I've used have a safety mechanism that has to be pressed into the gun as the gun comes into contact with a surface. Then the trigger has to be pulled with the safety mechanism fully depressed in order to shoot a nail. In other words this "accident" seems intentional.
19
posted on
05/05/2004 6:43:00 PM PDT
by
Ajnin
To: Jagdgewehr; billorites
"Would I be horribly incorrect, politically speaking, to inquire as to whether this poor, unfortunate schmoo was an American citizen or a wetback? " Not at all, as long as you don't live in a house that was built by "wetbacks", drive on roads maintained by "wetbacks", eat produce picked by "wetbacks", buy marijuana from "wetbacks", have your car repaired by "wetbacks" eat in restaurants or frequent "wetback" bordellos.
If I can find which hospital he is in would you like to go ask him?
20
posted on
05/05/2004 6:43:20 PM PDT
by
bayourod
(To 9/11 Commission: Unless you know where those WMDs are, don't bet my life that they don't exist.)
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