A man from the Ufa region in western Russia has survived after discovering a 10-cm nail in his head, in an incident separate from the case of a young girl who had a nail driven into her ear two weeks ago, Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reported.

The 40-year-old man discovered a metal dowel sticking out of the top of his head while brushing his hair after a party the previous evening. He told doctors that he had been drinking with his friends and so could not remember anything about how the nail had got there. It did not cause him to panic however, despite the fact that few people survive such traumas.

“Head traumas are often accompanied by amnesia — the victim does not remember how he was injured. Or he may not wish to speak of it for personal reasons,” said neurosurgeon Ildus Saitov, who removed the nail from the man’s head.

The doctor said his patient had been very lucky — the dowel had not broken any major blood vessels or the most important parts of the brain, while strong alcoholic intoxication Saitov believes saved him from going into shock from the pain. The patient left hospital only a couple of days after the operation and is now feeling absolutely normal, he said.

In early April a 17-year old girl from the south Russian city of Taganrog also survived, after a man she met in the street and agreed to have tea with kicked a 10-centimeter long nail into her head. The girl not only survived the attack, but managed to walk 3 kilometers to the nearest police station, though she fainted as she came in.

In August 2005 a 37-year-old Russian villager drove the whole length of a 122-millimeter nail into the back of his head after hearing a voice which told him to perform this act of folly. Although the iron rod had almost gone through the man’s head and stopped near the eyeball, he was also successfully operated on.