Non-catastrophic, self-inflicted nail gun discharge to the sinciput: a case report

Reports of nail gun injuries are rare; most unintentional injuries occur in occupational settings and affect the extremities.Patients with concealed injuries and limited sequelae may be challenging for clinicians to identify and are commonly missed.This case report describes an older adult who attempted suicide by discharging an electric nail gun into his sinciput, resulting in minimal sequelae and a favorable prognosis.The presentation posed a challenge for emergency medical services (EMS).The patient insisted that he had attempted to discharge the nail gun but it had jammed, and he had no significant traumatic injuries on examination.Clinicians must advocate for patients to ensure the best possible outcomes; in this case, the patient could have waited several hours for triage if the clinician had accepted the patient's account at face value and had not escalated the case to the resuscitation coordinator, based on the clinician's experience with similar presentations.