No joke: 3-inch nail removed from Ill. man's brain

OAK LAWN, Ill. (AP) — Dante Autullo thought his doctors were joking and was sure he'd merely cut himself with a nail gun while building a shed.

But they assured him the X-ray was real: A nail was lodged in the middle of the suburban Chicago man's brain.

Autullo was recovering Friday after undergoing surgery, where doctors removed the 3 1/4-inch nail. It had come within millimeters of the part of the brain that controls motor function.

The 32-year-old from Orland Park says he asked doctors if they'd gotten the X-ray out of their "joke file." He says the doctors replied: "No man, that's in your head."

Autullo says he was building a shed Tuesday and using the nail gun above his head when he fired it, but didn't realize it struck him.