We know…it’s hard to even look at that x-ray. But that’s what can happen when you don’t pay attention to muzzle discipline when you’re loading your spear gun. Not that we’ve ever loaded a spear gun. But the multiculturally named Yasser Lopez found out the hard way why the four rules apply to just about any kind of gun you can think of. Fortunately for Yasser, though, his aim was darned close to perfect . . .

As wptv.com tells it, he managed to shoot himself in one of the few places in his noggin that would do the least amount of damage.

“It was about one inch above his right eye straight through,” said trauma surgeon Dr. George Garcia. “You could feel the tip under the skin on the posterior part of the skull.”

An X-ray scan shows Lopez’s brain after rescuers used a re-bar tool to cut down 18-inches of stainless steel spear to even fit him in the scanner.

Because of the almost perfect placement of the shot, the damage done by the spear was remarkably minor, all things considered.

And miraculously, the three-foot shaft somehow missed every major blood vessel in the brain and pierced the right, not left side of his brain, sparing his speech.

His words are actually, amazingly easy to understand,” Bullock said. “He can, for example, he says he’s not having pain. He’s worried about the fact he can’t use his left-side properly.”

Yasser’s expected to make a “near-full” recovery, after a few months of rehab. And gladder of that we could not be. So given the trauma he’s no doubt gone through, we won’t send his IGOTD trophy until he’s back on his feet again.

19 COMMENTS

      • Wow! That’s something. I’d be interested in knowing what kind of reactions you get after the recipients get their trophies – I’m sure not all of them feel honored and pleased.

        • Actually, I just recently had a few representative trophies made up – the one above, another with the little man holding a long gun and, because it will be needed so frequently, one with a police officer atop the hardware.

          Unfortunately, due to cost considerations, we won’t be able to actually, you know, send a real one to each IGOTD winner. So once I’ve had a chance to properly photograph each one, we’ll be using them symbolically in our IGOTD posts.

  1. OUCH!!!!! That hurts just looking at it. Makes me glad I cut up my old non-functional spear gun and sold it for aluminum scrap.

  2. I don’t have one, so I’m having to rely on pictures, but a spear gun isn’t a small object. Accidentally spearing one’s own head must take special effort.

  3. Well I imagine the amount of gray matter that would have to be missing that the guy was majority empty I’m there anyway. I mean a spear finding its way inside the cranial cavity only has a best case scenario if the party in question is an airhead as far as I’m concerned.

  4. It wasn’t Lopez who had the spear gun; it was one of his buddies:

    …Yasser Lopez went spearfishing with friends. One of his friends was loading a speargun and the spear accidentally deployed hitting him in the head, 5 cm above his right eye.

  5. With friends like that who needs enemies. I laughed out loud when I saw the comment “thats going to leave a mark”.

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