Brazil nuts can be hard to crack.
I’ve read about people who have survived such injuries. Sometimes it does very weird things to them. He could start singing opera or beating his wife or both.
Caution: Do Not Point At Face
Oh, please do hear the tale of Phineas Gage,
A man who lived in America’s golden age,
Who used a tamping rod to push down old explosives,
And deserves a much better rhyme to describe the consequences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage
In any event, he was pestered for years by the Smithsonian,
which begged and pleaded to have his skull once he died,
and he finally agreed. So to this day, it holds an honored place in the national museum, with a replacement tamping rod inserted through the old hole to show what happened.