Dante Autullo believed he was only grazed when nailgun went off and didn't believe doctors when they showed him X-ray

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

A man has survived firing a nailgun into his own brain – in what surgeons worryingly said was not an unheard-of occurrence.

Dante Autullo of Chicago thought doctors were joking, feeling sure he had only been grazed by the nail when it flew past as he was building a shed. Even when hospital medics produced an X-ray he was sceptical.

Dante Autullo, who thought his skull was only grazed in the nailgun accident, with neurosurgeon Leslie Schaffer. Photograph: M Spencer Green/AP

"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 said. "The doctor said 'No man, that's in your head.'"

His companion, Gail Glaenzer, bathed what looked like a flesh wound after Autullo misfired the gun. He went on with his work, did some snow plowing and only agreed to go to hospital the next day after waking up feeling nauseated.

Autullo had surgery at Advocate Christ medical centre in Oak Lawn, where doctors removed the 3 1/4-inch (7.62cm) nail. It had come within millimetres of the part of the brain that controls motor function.

As he was rushed by ambulance to another hospital for surgery, he posted a picture of the X-ray on Facebook.

"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."

There are pain-sensitive nerves on the skull but none within the brain itself – so Autello only felt like he had been hit in the head.

"He feels good. He moved all his limbs, he's talking normal, he remembers everything," Glaenzer said. "It's amazing, a miracle."

Autullo's neurosurgeon, Leslie Schaffer, said the case was unusual but not extremely rare.

A nail did not go in like a bullet, which would break into multiple pieces, he said.

"This (the nail) is thinner, with a small trajectory, and pointed at the end," he said. "The bone doesn't fracture much because the nail has a small tip."

Schaffer said Autollo's skull slowed down the nail, which was removed by making holes on either side of its entry point and pulling it out along with a piece of the skull.

The hole was covered with titanium mesh after the two-hour operation, hospital spokesman Mike Maggio said.