Shot in the Arm
May 29, 2006 | 7 Comments
While helping my uncle put up the walls for his new garage I was accidentally shot in the arm with a nail.
We were at the top of a wall securing two sections together. The top was fairly secure, but I felt it needed another to snug it in securely. I told my dad to put one more in. When the nail was shot into the corner of the 2×6, the corner broke away. I felt a sharp pain in my arm and exclaimed, seeing the missing chunk of wood, I initially assumed I had been hit by the shrapnel. Oddly though, the pain didn’t seem to go away. Had I been cut by the flying debris? I looked down and saw the nail buried 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch into my forearm.
My father, being an EMT for years, immediately told me not to pull it out. He inspected the wound and thankfully it had missed any major veins. He applied pressure and pulled the nail out. No major damage done, the wound was cleaned with alcohol and a band-aid placed over the hole. I went back out and we finished the remaining walls.
An amazing aspect to this injury was that the nail traveled at least 3 feet through the air before embedding in my arm. The shot was entirely unavoidable and equally unlikely. This was probably one of the best places to be shot with a nail. There is a lot of meat in the arm and it never truly hurt that badly. In fact I fear the tetanus shot I’m going to get will probably hurt worse.
About 8 years ago my father shot himself with the nail gun while we were putting trusses up in his garage. Two things were much worse about that injury. First, the nail went all the way through his finger. Second, it stuck into the truss he was holding, spattering blood across the truss and he needed to pull it out with a hammer.
The good news is that in both instances we were able to continue on and finish the projects without noticeable delay.