Migrant worker had nail in head for 4 years

BEIJING, Oct. 6 -- A migrant worker who recently began suffering headaches discovered he had been carrying a steel nail in his head for nearly four years.

The nail, almost five centimeters long, had pierced the man¨s head through his nose in an accident four years ago. The man, surnamed Tao, said there had been no symptoms until the recent headaches.

The nail was removed by doctors at Shenzhen No. 2 People¨s Hospital on Sept. 23.

＾My head and neck were aching over the past few weeks and later I had a fever, so my co-workers took me to the hospital,￣ said Tao, 46, a native of Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

＾Doctors found the nail in my head after a CT scan, but at first, I had no idea how it got into my head.￣

He later remembered working in a factory in Zhejiang Province four years ago where a machine belt studded with nails broke, sending nails flying into his face.

＾There might have been one nail that flew into my nose and then into my head,￣ Tao said.

He was taken to the hospital for treatment after the accident, but the injuries to his face were not serious and he did not feel any pain apart from the injuries to his face.

He later came to work at a chemical factory in Longgang District. The nail eventually began to rust, leading to inflammation.

＾He was a very lucky man. If the trajectory of the nail was slightly different, he might have died instantly four years ago,￣ said Lu Yongtian, a doctor who performed the surgery.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily)