CHENNAI: In a six-hour surgery, doctors at a private hospital successfully removed a two-inch nail from inside the head of a 23-year-old factory worker.

The nail had got in when a co-worker's nail gun had accidentally recoiled.

Doctors drilled into the man's head to remove the metal and two days later, on July 6, Brahma of Machhali Gaon in Uttar Pradesh, was discharged from the hospital.

The very next day he walked into the conference room of the hospital, smiling at the flashing media cameras.

"Doctors have removed the sutures," he told reporters on Friday, "I can eat, walk, and talk normally.

I am feeling good and waiting to get back to work."The accident happened on July 4, when his co-worker was sealing wooden boxes with a nail gun as Brahma was cleaning the floor at the packaging unit of a factory in Navalur.

Brahma complained of a sudden and intense pain at the back of his head.

He was bleeding too.

Staff on the work floor calmed him down and said that a nail, about as long as an AA Battery, had entered the junction between head and neck.

The nail was from his co-worker's gun.Bramha went to the emergency room at Rela Hospital in a conscious and alert state.

"There was no weakness in his hands or legs.

His blood pressure and pulse were normal.

This and his age were the biggest advantages we had on our side," said hospital's consultant neurosurgeon Dr M Anbuselvam.But the nail was at least half an inch below the skin level in the craniovertebral junction complex transitional zone between the cranium and the spine.

"It comprises a complex balance of different elements and was close to the left vertebral artery.

Any untoward event could cause speech issues, paralysis, or even death," he said.And CT images showed it wasn't a simple nail.

"It had shanks and additional attachments designed to prevent easy removal or tampering once it is hammered into wood," Dr Anbuselvam said.A surgery was planned.

With the patient lying face down, doctors used special neurosurgery equipment called the diamond burr to gently drill around the nail.

"The shanks of the nail were exposed, and further delicate drilling was done.

The nail was then gently extracted," he said.Brahma regained consciousness, remained alert, and was able to move his hands and legs without difficulty.

"He was discharged on the second day," Rela Hospitals CEO Dr Ilankumaran Kaliamoorthy said.

"Doctors have now declared him fit to get back to work," he said.