- EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (AP) -- A university student employed as a construction
worker had an eight-centimetre-long nail driven into his brain in a freak
accident and has lived to tell about it.
-
- Travis Bogumill, 21, walked out of hospital
six days after the accident on Thursday, after surgeons removed the nail.
-
- In most ways, the civil engineering student
appeared none the worse for wear, but Bogumill says the accident has affected
his math ability.
-
- Before the accident, Bogumill said, "you
could give me two two-digit numbers and I could multiply them within seconds
in my head.
-
- "But now you give me a piece of
paper and multiplying 56 by 23 is still difficult."
-
- The accident occurred when a co-worker
at a construction site bumped his head with the nail gun, activating the
device and sending the nail so deep all that was visible was a small hole
in Bogumill's scalp.
-
- He remained conscious, turned to his
co-worker and said, "You just nailed me in the head," Bogumill
recalled.
-
- An X-ray showed the nail had lodged in
the right side of his brain, halfway between his ear and the top of his
head.
-
- Bogumill, a student at Chippewa Valley
Technical College, said it "felt like somebody was smacking my head
repeatedly with a hammer."
-
- Doctors told Bogumill he shouldn't have
been able to walk or talk after the accident and that they were baffled
why he wasn't knocked unconscious.
-
- Dr. John Lamoureux said the nail lodged
in an area of the brain typically involved in processing math, which could
explain the problems he is now having.
|
Sightings HomePage