This should encourage the unwary to read and apply safety instructions carefully before handling dangerous objects… In Malaysia, a 30-year-old man working in the constructionconstruction was the victim of an impressive accident: using a nail gun pneumaticpneumatic Without protective glasses, he accidentally shot a nail into his left eye! The nail, measuring 3.2 cm, penetrated the upper part of theorbitorbit before lodging in the frontal lobe of the brain, reports the journal CureusDespite this serious injury, he remained conscious and went to the hospital on his own.
An improbable survival
The patient owes his survival to several factors. First, the nail did not hit critical areas of the brain that control immediate vital functions. In addition, rapid medical intervention was crucial: a craniotomiecraniotomie emergency procedure allowed the nail to be removed and the bleeding and fractures to be treated orbitalsorbitals. Finally, his relatively stable initial condition, with normal vital parameters and a Glasgow Coma Score of 15, greatly facilitated his care. The Glasgow Coma Scale is a measurement scale ranging from 3 to 15, used by health professionals to assess a person’s level of consciousness after a brain injury. It measures three aspects: eye opening, verbal response and motor response.
The rarity of this injury
Penetrating brain injuries like the one suffered by our worker are rare and represent only 0.4% of head injuries. Even more exceptional are transorbital injuries, where an object enters through the orbit to reach the brain. They are usually caused by shrapnel, bullets or metal objects and are often associated with severe neurological and ophthalmological damage.
Someone else had become famous for suffering a similar, but even more spectacular, accident: in 1848, Phineas Gage, an American laborer, survived a severe brain injury when an iron bar pierced his skull, destroying part of his frontal lobe. Although he survived, his personality changed dramatically: he became impulsive, unreliable, and lost some of his intelligenceintelligenceproviding scientists of the time with valuable information on the role of the frontal lobe in the regulation of personality and behavior.
What are the possible aftereffects?
THE aftereffectsafter-effects Potential risks of such injuries include neurological deficits, such as motor or cognitive impairment, as well as permanent ophthalmologic damage, such as vision loss. gravitygravity The after-effects depend on the area of the brain affected, the speedspeed and the quality of medical care. In the case of the Malaysian patient, although he avoided major neurological deficits, he lost vision in his left eye.
After his operation, the patient was released from the hospital five days later without neurological deficits. However, he no longer perceived lightlight with his left eye. Details of his long-term recovery are not available, as he left Malaysia shortly afterwards. The impact of his injury on his daily life therefore remains unknown, but he survived a life-threatening situation thanks to prompt and effective medical care.
