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. 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.
Uh...you know...you're right. How terribly racist and insensitive of me.
My nail gun works that way, but it can also be operated in a second manner. Hold the trigger down and push (actually slam) the nail gun down into the board. This depresses the safety and fires the nail.
This method is significantly faster and drives the nail in more completely. If you just hold the nail gun against the board & pull the trigger, recoil forces it away from the board & the nail is left sticking up about 1/8". By slamming the gun down the nail is driven flush with the surface and does not have to be touched up with a hammer.
I have seen contractors tape the trigger down on nail guns to force this method of use.
It may be that newer nail guns have been redesigned to prevent this, but it is by far the preferred method of operation.
If the victim fell onto the worker with the nail gun and then they teetered above the ground fighting for balance, it is marginally possible that it was accidental.
Anyone with a few hours experience could easily kill a coworker with a nail gun by driving one nail directly into the base of the skull. If he had six chances and didn't do the job, it may have been accidental.
Why? Do you own the hospital? If you were the gatekeeper would you let him die on the steps of the hospital? What if you knew that it was your new home he was building?
If you hate Mexicans so much why don't you start a movement to stop all new home construction in your town? Put all carpenters, bricklayers, drywall workers, electricians, wholesalers, concrete companies, Realtors, builders, convenience stores, roofers etc out of business. Then who are you going to sell insurance to?
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