An Alvarado man was shot in the head with staple from an air gun earlier this month but sustained no noticeable brain damage.
Shaun Hunter, 27, was at his job building mobile homes Nov. 4 when the accident occurred.
"I was building a canopy on a roof, and I was trying to show my buddy how to do it quicker," he said.
"I guess he wasn't paying attention to [how] his gun was over my head, and I went to stand up and hit the safety of the gun, and it shot a staple in my head," Hunter said.
The 2 1/2-inch staple sent a shock wave through his body and then his head began throbbing, he said.
Dr. Fernando Silva, a neurosurgeon at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital, said he had never seen anything like it.
The staple did not rupture any of Hunter's blood vessels. If it had, Hunter could have sustained hemorrhaging, maybe a coma and possibly death.
"The staple's very thin, and it sort of dissects, or it kind of spreads, the brain as it goes through -- because the brain, if you will, it's a collection of a bunch of little wires stuck together -- and this is thin enough to make its way in between the wires," Silva said.
Hunter's surgical staples were removed Tuesday.
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As Thanksgiving Day approaches, he said he's especially grateful.
"I'm still alive to spend another day with my family," Hunter said.
