Chennai doctors remove nail from man’s head

Chennai

: Doctors in a Chennai hospital removed a two-inch nail that went into the head of a 23-year-old factory worker.

The nail went into the head of Brahma of Machhali Gaon village in Uttar Pradesh who is working in a factory at Navalur in Chennai when a nail gun used by a co-worker recoiled accidentally. The accident happened on July 4 when the co-worker was sealing wooden boxes while Brahma cleaning the floor.

Brahma complained of a sudden and intense pain at the back of his head. There was bleeding too. Staff on the work floor calmed him down and said that a nail – as long as an AA battery – had entered the junction between head and neck.

Bramha came to the emergency room in Rela Hospital in an alert state. “There was no weakness in his hands or legs, and his blood pressure and pulse were normal. This and his age were the biggest advantages we had on our side,” said hospital’s consultant neurosurgeon Dr M Anbuselvam.

However, the nail was at least half an inch below the skin level at the craniovertebral junction, which represents the complex transitional zone between the cranium and the spine. “It comprises a complex balance of different elements and was close to the left vertebral artery. Any untoward event can cause speech issues, paralysis or even death,” he said.

CT images showed that it wasn’t a simple nail. “It had shanks and additional attachments designed to prevent easy removal or tampering once it is hammered into wood. This made extraction difficult. We can’t leave it there either because any movement of the nail could be life-threatening,” Dr Anbuselvam said.

A surgery was performed on the same day. While the patient was lying face down, doctors used special neurosurgery equipment called the diamond burr to gently drill around the nail and create space. “The shanks of the nail were exposed, and further delicate drilling was done. The nail was then gently extracted,” he said.

After a six-hour surgery, the patient regained consciousness, remained alert and was able to move his hands and legs without any difficulty. “He started walking the next day and was discharged on the second day,” Rela Hospitals CEO Dr Ilankumaran Kaliamoorthy said. “Doctors have now declared him fit to get back to work,” he said.

On July 6, he was discharged from the hospital.

“Doctors have removed the sutures. I am waiting to get back to work,” Brahma told reporters on Friday. “I can eat, walk, and talk normally. And I am feeling good,” he said.