Living in Seattle for 12 years now, I've learned via travel and myriad informational gleanings that Oregon is a many-splendored state. Quite apart from the beauteous scenery and great wines, it has a real can-do spirit; witty, savvy and unassailably focused political activists; a striking and impressive self-help ethic; judicious and culturally-sensitive office-holders; first-rate public schools; and exceedingly reasonable government-funded mediators.

Now, Oregon has one more big feather in its cap. The Oregonian reports today that - according to a current medical journal article - a new world record has been set in the state: most number of intentionally-inserted foreign objects successfully removed from someone's head.

One day last year, a 33-year-old Oregon man picked up a nail gun and put it to his head. Just what drove him isn't clear. Personal problems, mental illness and methamphetamine all probably played a role. He fired. And fired again. And again. Twelve times....A day later, he went to a small Oregon hospital. He said he had a headache.

I should think so. Treatment ensued, at Oregon Health and Science University hospital.

Twenty-five days later, he walked out...a little weak but, physically, healthy. Doctors say his case is extraordinary: He is the only person known to have survived after having so many foreign objects embedded in his head....Because of medical privacy laws, doctors have not identified the man who put 12 nails in his skull....OHSU doctors...(wrote) about the injury and surgery in the current Journal of Neurosurgery. "This case represents the only known survivor of the largest number of foreign objects (twelve) ever purposefully penetrated into the skull," they wrote. The previous record was nine, from an attempted nail-gun suicide in Japan.

It figures the previous record holder would be in Japan; they've got a real flair for the macabre. The Oregon man subsequently tried to kill himself again (not with a nail gun, apparently), but is now finally on a more even keel thanks to therapy, according to the Oregonian article.

I wish him success in maintaining his stability. Additionally, I believe he has used up his reasonable allocation of public resources for the new century. I hope he has found some way - perhaps through volunteerism - to repay his debt to society. It is rather a large one.

TECHNORATI TAGS: OREGON, STAPLE GUN, NAILS, HEAD, JOURNAL OF NEUROSURGERY, OREGON HEALTH AND SCIENCE UNIVERSITY, HOSPITAL, JAPAN

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at April 21, 2006 02:27 PM