adminAutullo was recovering yesterday after undergoing surgery at Advocate Christ Medical Centre in Oak Lawn, where doctors removed the nail that came within millimetres of the part of the brain controlling motor function.
“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 32-year-old recalled. “The doctor said ‘No man, that’s in your head.'”
As he was rushed by ambulance to another hospital for surgery, he posted a picture of the X-ray on Facebook.
Autullo, who lives in Orland Park, said he was building a shed on Tuesday and using the nail gun above his head when he fired it. With nothing to indicate that a nail hadn’t simply whizzed by his head, his long-time companion, Gail Glaenzer, cleaned the wound with peroxide.
“It really felt like I got punched on the side of the head,” he said, adding that he continued working. “I thought it went past my ear.”
While there are pain-sensitive nerves on a person’s skull, there aren’t any within the brain itself. That’s why he would have felt the nail strike the skull, but he wouldn’t have felt it penetrate the brain.
Neither he nor Glaenzer thought much about it, and Autullo went on with his day, even ploughing a bit of snow. But the next day when he awoke from a nap, feeling nauseated, Glaenzer sensed something was wrong and suggested they go to the hospital.
At first Autullo refused, but he relented after the two picked up their son at school on Wednesday evening. — AP.
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