By Rupert Griffin
Dante Autullo thought he had just cut himself with a nail gun while building a shed, but was shocked when the doctors showed him in his X-Ray that a 3 1/4-inch nail was lodged in the middle of his brain.
On Friday, the 32-year-old Autullo was recovering after undergoing surgery at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where doctors removed the nail which came within millimeters of the region in the brain that controls motor function.
Autullo said, "When they brought in the picture, I said to the doctor, 'Is this a joke? Did you get that out of the doctors joke file? The doctor said, 'No man, that's in your head.'" As he was being rushed to another hospital for surgery, he posted a picture of the X-ray on Facebook from the ambulance.
The Orland Park resident said that he was building a shed on Tuesday, using the nail gun from above his head when he fired it. As there were no signs that a nail hadn't simply whizzed by his head, his long-time companion Gail Glaenzer, cleaned the injury with peroxide. "It really felt like I got punched on the side of the head," he said, adding that he continued working after that. "I thought it went past my ear."
Pain-sensitive nerves exist on a person's skull, but there aren't any within the brain itself. For that reason, Autullo felt the nail strike the skull, but never felt it penetrate the brain. As a result, he went about with the day, but the next day when he awoke from a nap, he was nauseated. Glaenzer then sensed something was wrong, and suggested visiting the hospital.
A couple of hours later, an X-ray of his skull showed a nail as floating in the middle of his head. Doctors told the couple about the serious placement of the nail, and Autullo was then rushed by ambulance to a different hospital for more specialized care.
Neurosurgeon Leslie Schaffer echoed that Autullo's case wasn't a typical one, although not even as rare. Schaffer explained that having a nail penetrate the skull is not like being shot in the head, since a bullet would break into multiple pieces. He said, "This (the nail) is thinner, with a small trajectory, and pointed at the end. The bone doesn't fracture much because the nail has a small tip."
Schaffer said the man's skull stopped the nail from going farther into his brain. He said he removed the nail by putting two holes in Autullo's skull, on either side of the nail, then pulled the nail out along with a piece of the skull.
In the two-hour-long surgery, the affected part of the skull was removed was replaced with a titanium mesh, Hospital spokesman Mike Maggio said.
Glaenzer said earlier Friday, "He feels good. He moved all his limbs, he's talking normal, he remembers everything. It's amazing, a miracle."
Glaenzer added that though Autullo had not really talked about how scared he was about what could have happened, but he did express a recognition about being close to death. She said, "He was joking with me (after surgery), 'We need to get the Discovery Channel up here to tape this. I'm one of those medical miracles.'"
