Kansas man fine after nail lodged in skull

SHAWNEE, Kan. — George Chandler said he didn't know a 2 ½-inch nail was driven into his skull until his buddy noticed it stuck through his cap.

Chandler said he felt only a sting.

"It never did really what you call hurt," the Shawnee man said Wednesday on the "Today" show.

Chandler said doctors told him he could have been paralyzed if the nail had struck his skull only a millimeter away from where it did.

Chandler said his friend Phil Kern was using a nail gun to mount lattice on Chandler's deck when a hose on the powerful tool became caught.

Chandler said he stood up just as Kern tried to free the gun and it discharged. At first, they couldn't locate the nail. But when Kern saw it, he ordered Chandler to sit down while he called 911.

An emergency-room doctor tried unsuccessfully to remove the nail with a pair of pliers.

"He looked at me and said, 'I need a claw hammer,' " Chandler recalled. "I thought, 'Ah, he's just teasing.' "

The doctor used a screwdriver to pry the nail up, borrowed a claw hammer from a worker to finish the job and sent Chandler home with a few stitches.