SHAWNEE, Kan. -- A nail pierced a man's skull Friday and Monday, he walked his dogs with his wife and grandchildren.

George Chandler and his buddy were outside building a lattice in a back yard.

His friend was nailing up boards. Chandler was below him.

The nail gun hose got tangled up in something, and the nail gun fired.

At first, they didn't know where the nail landed.

His friend asked him if he saw where the nail went, and he said he didn't but he felt a sting on the top of his head.

They then discovered the 2 and a half inch nail had gone right into his skull.

"It was just like a maybe like a sting, bite or something, you know," Chandler said.

He said there wasn't any blood.

Chandler was alert and talking when medics rushed him to a hospital in an ambulance.

Instead of reaching into a surgical bag, doctors used something right out of a tool box.

"Does anybody have a hammer, a claw hammer. I thought he was teasing at first, but then he says, 'No. It went in like that. We can pull it out like that,'" Chandler said.

Chandler's family said that if the nail had entered his head just a millimeter lower, the nail could have left him paralyzed or caused serious damage to his speech or eyesight.

"Well I feel very lucky, very, very lucky," Chandler said.

Chandler said he felt fine, and that he'd just have to go back to the doctor for follow-up visits.