{"id":72,"date":"2008-11-08T08:08:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-08T08:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waiting.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/pin-incident-gave-man-pain-fame-nickname.html"},"modified":"2008-11-08T08:08:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-08T08:08:00","slug":"pin-incident-gave-man-pain-fame-nickname","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waiting.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/pin-incident-gave-man-pain-fame-nickname.html","title":{"rendered":"Pin incident gave man pain, fame, nickname"},"content":{"rendered":"Date: 11\/8\/2008<br \/><br \/>By ANDREA BROWN<br \/>The (Colorado Springs) Gazette<br \/><br \/>PENROSE, Colo. (AP) _ Go ahead. Call Chris Clear a pinhead.<br \/><br \/>Everyone else in town does.<br \/><br \/>&#8220;It fits me pretty good,&#8221; said the 19-year-old from Penrose who six months ago survived a freak accident with a garden tiller that shot a 2-inch metal pin into his brain.<br \/><br \/>What&#8217;s weirder is that he didn&#8217;t know he had the nail-like pin in his head until two days later, despite a trip to the ER.<br \/><br \/>He takes the &#8220;Pinhead&#8221; nickname as a badge of honor and displays it on merchandise.<br \/><br \/>Folks around Fremont County wear T-shirts with his brain scan picture. The gray X-ray image shows his skull with a long white pin.<br \/><br \/>The accident happened in April while he was helping a buddy steer an old rototiller.<br \/><br \/>&#8220;I felt something hit me in the face,&#8221; Chris said. &#8220;I thought it kicked up something like a rock.&#8221;<br \/><br \/>It came at him with bullet-like force, instantly causing a massive nosebleed and severe neck pain. Chris, an EMT and Penrose volunteer firefighter, was taken by ambulance to a Canon City hospital.<br \/><br \/>On his face near his nostril was a tiny cut \u2014 from the rock, it was assumed. He was sent home with a neck brace for whiplash and an appointment with a chiropractor.<br \/><br \/>For the next two days he had impaired vision and a really bad headache. Back he went by ambulance to the ER \u2014 and this time a brain scan showed the metal pin in his head.<br \/><br \/>&#8220;I heard them down the hallway say, &#8216;He has something in his head; he needs to get out of here,'&#8221; Chris said. &#8220;I was, &#8216;What the crap?'&#8221;<br \/><br \/>He doesn&#8217;t remember much after he was rushed to a hospital near Denver. During the nine-hour surgery, his parents braced for the worst.<br \/><br \/>His mom, Dawn, said it was like a Hollywood movie when &#8220;the double doors opened up, and here was this surgeon holding up the pin.&#8221;<br \/><br \/>The projectile had entered near Chris&#8217; nose, then shot to the back of his head, missing several major arteries by millimeters and doing only minor damage to his optic nerves.<br \/><br \/>Chris was too drugged to remember his four days in ICU or his stardom as the patient who had a pin in his head.<br \/><br \/>When he returned for a checkup, he saw his pinhead X-ray on hospital computers. &#8220;They had it as their desktop,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It was pretty funny.&#8221;<br \/><br \/>The bizarre incident made national news, and the lanky, soft-spoken teen found himself in the spotlight, facing the public without his usual ballcap for protection.<br \/><br \/>He couldn&#8217;t wear a hat until the back of his skull healed from surgery. Nor could he drive his pickup for two months while his vision was returning.<br \/><br \/>During recovery, Chris, the second-oldest of eight kids, had plenty of company. &#8220;I got like 50 friend requests on MySpace in one day,&#8221; he said.<br \/><br \/>People he knew \u2014 and didn&#8217;t know \u2014 asked for images of the brain scan with the pin.<br \/><br \/>His mom set up a Web site to sell shirts, mouse pads and beer steins with the pinhead scan. Profits go to the Penrose Fire Department, where he&#8217;s back on the force and also working for American Medical Response.<br \/><br \/>There&#8217;s no scar where the pin hit, but when Chris pushes the spot his front teeth go numb.<br \/><br \/>He keeps the pin in his pickup to show those doubters who say, &#8220;I saw that on the news, and that&#8217;s not you.&#8221;<br \/><br \/>Not minding being called a pinhead should be proof enough.<br \/><br \/>___<br \/><br \/>On the Net:<br \/><br \/>Cafe Press: <a href=\"http:\/\/shop.cafepress.com\/chris-clear\">http:\/\/shop.cafepress.com\/chris-clear<\/a><br \/><br \/>Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.<br \/>Summary","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Date: 11\/8\/2008By ANDREA BROWNThe (Colorado Springs) GazettePENROSE, Colo. (AP) _ Go ahead. Call Chris Clear a pinhead.Everyone else in town does.&#8220;It fits me pretty good,&#8221; said the 19-year-old from Penrose who six months ago survived a freak accident with a garden tiller that shot a 2-inch metal pin into his brain.What&#8217;s weirder is that he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,309,308,306,310,305,307],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brain-injury","tag-brain-injury-news","tag-brain-injury-outcomes","tag-brain-scan-with-pin","tag-pin-in-brain","tag-pinhead","tag-projectiles-and-brain"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pin incident gave man pain, fame, nickname - Brain Injury Lawyer Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/waiting.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/pin-incident-gave-man-pain-fame-nickname.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pin incident gave man pain, fame, nickname - Brain Injury Lawyer Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Date: 11\/8\/2008By ANDREA BROWNThe (Colorado Springs) GazettePENROSE, Colo. (AP) _ Go ahead. Call Chris Clear a pinhead.Everyone else in town does.&#8220;It fits me pretty good,&#8221; said the 19-year-old from Penrose who six months ago survived a freak accident with a garden tiller that shot a 2-inch metal pin into his brain.What&#8217;s weirder is that he [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/waiting.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/pin-incident-gave-man-pain-fame-nickname.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Brain Injury Lawyer Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-08T08:08:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gordon Johnson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gordon Johnson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/2008\\\/11\\\/pin-incident-gave-man-pain-fame-nickname.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/2008\\\/11\\\/pin-incident-gave-man-pain-fame-nickname.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gordon Johnson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3db3864e6ca028327e090439e0b4b262\"},\"headline\":\"Pin incident gave man pain, fame, nickname\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-11-08T08:08:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/2008\\\/11\\\/pin-incident-gave-man-pain-fame-nickname.html\"},\"wordCount\":617,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"brain injury\",\"brain injury news\",\"brain injury outcomes\",\"brain scan with pin\",\"pin in brain\",\"pinhead\",\"projectiles and brain\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/2008\\\/11\\\/pin-incident-gave-man-pain-fame-nickname.html#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/2008\\\/11\\\/pin-incident-gave-man-pain-fame-nickname.html\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/2008\\\/11\\\/pin-incident-gave-man-pain-fame-nickname.html\",\"name\":\"Pin incident gave man pain, fame, nickname - Brain Injury Lawyer Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-11-08T08:08:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3db3864e6ca028327e090439e0b4b262\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/2008\\\/11\\\/pin-incident-gave-man-pain-fame-nickname.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Brain Injury Lawyer Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3db3864e6ca028327e090439e0b4b262\",\"name\":\"Gordon Johnson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ed4f3ab71dec1a856724f965e0fb35e567125a9a212a401c3cf9357dd1b8c83d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ed4f3ab71dec1a856724f965e0fb35e567125a9a212a401c3cf9357dd1b8c83d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ed4f3ab71dec1a856724f965e0fb35e567125a9a212a401c3cf9357dd1b8c83d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gordon Johnson\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/tbilaw.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/waiting.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/gjohnson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pin incident gave man pain, fame, nickname - Brain Injury Lawyer Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/waiting.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/pin-incident-gave-man-pain-fame-nickname.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pin incident gave man pain, fame, nickname - Brain Injury Lawyer Blog","og_description":"Date: 11\/8\/2008By ANDREA BROWNThe (Colorado Springs) GazettePENROSE, Colo. 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