Freak Medical Survival Stories
June 6, 2005 — -- The picture of a three-inch nail stuck in a healthy 58-year-old man's skull begs the question, how does one get so lucky?
"I refer to him when I teach as the luckiest man I've ever encountered," said Dr. Anne Hayman, a professor of neuroradiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and one of the doctors who submitted the photo to the New England Journal of Medicine.
It turns out a lot of these survivors have plain luck to thank. The inexplicability of it all is what makes many survival stories so intriguing. Here's a look at some incredible medical stories from the past few years:
"There's no legitimate reason why the three of us, especially me, are here at this moment," he said at a news conference.
A four-inch nail lodged in Lawler's skull was the cause of the pain on the roof of his mouth. Apparently, a nail gun that backfired on the construction worker on Jan. 6, 2005, a week before, had unloaded two four-inch nails, not one as he had originally thought.
The tool sent a nail into a piece of wood nearby, and another one that Lawler didn't realize sailed through his mouth and lodged into his skull.
Following the accident, Lawler had what he thought was a minor toothache and blurry vision. After painkillers and ice didn't ease the pain, he went to a dental office where the nail was found and he was taken to a nearby hospital where it was removed in a four-hour surgery.
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