How teen tradie was shot in the head with nail gun - and survived

At age 16, Riley Scott suffered an injury that would make the strongest of stomachs churn. Now, he has shared how he survived.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

One crucial millimetre is the reason this teenage apprentice tradie is still alive.

While working on a Melbourne construction site two years ago, Riley Scott was shot in the head with a nail gun, sending a metal rod 38mm deep into his scalp.

Had it been one millimetre extra in any direction, the now 19-year-old would have been killed instantly.

“If I touched it the tiniest bit [I’d be dead]. It hit the only spot it could have hit and not killed me,” Riley told news.com.au.

“If it was the tiniest bit to the left, right, up or down, it would have killed me on the spot.”

The teenager, now in his fourth and final year of his carpentry apprenticeship, said it was “pretty scary” knowing how close he came to certain death.

It was about 3pm when, while working with a colleague on building walls, he was accidentally struck by the nail gun.

Riley Scott was struck with a nail that pierced 38mm into his head. Picture: Supplied

“I didn’t feel it, I just saw it [the nail] out of the corner of my eye … and I just freaked out,” he recalled.

“I alerted the person in charge and he panicked and drove me to hospital.”

Riley, who was just 16 at the time, was taken to Dandenong Hospital where he was rushed to the emergency ward and underwent scans before being transferred to Monash Hospital.

There, he went straight into a four-hour “open brain” surgery where he had his scalp sliced open from ear to ear and had the nail carefully extracted.

Riley remained in hospital for two weeks after the procedure and was discharged to continue his recovery at home.

He returned to work three months later, but said he had suffered ongoing symptoms including headaches and dizziness that he feared might stay with him for life.

He was rushed to hospital and later underwent four hours of surgery to remove the nail. Picture: Supplied

“I still get headaches and sharp pains in my head, and dizziness when I bend over,” he said.

While he remained insistent on a career as a chippy, it had been difficult returning to noisy construction sites.

The noise aggravated his headaches and headphones typically put pressure on his scars, causing significant pain and discomfort, he said.

He had also been psychologically affected by the incident, his dad Mark explained.

“He has had mental issues since what happened, he has some issues being on job sites that sometimes affects him doing his job properly,” Mr Scott said.

“He just hasn’t been mentally well since.”

He said there were “no words to describe” what he felt when he saw Riley laying in the hospital room with a nail protruding from his head.

“It was lucky it didn’t get him in the eye or the temple, that would have been a different story. He was so unlucky, but he got lucky with where it hit,” the dad said.

His whole scalp was pulled back during the procedure so it could be removed safely. Picture: Supplied

Mr Scott was so intent on working out how the nail ended up in his son’s head that he went to his friend’s factory and fired a nail gun for himself, trying to wrap his head around what happened.

He said the nail in Riley’s head “looked terrible” and he initially thought the worst.

“Then he had a four-hour operation, and there’s all sorts of things that can happen during that,” he said.

Despite almost being killed on the tools, Mr Scott remained fully supportive of Riley becoming a carpenter.

“He’s a hands-on person, he’s sort of born to be a tradie and he’s very good at what he does,” he said.

The family has sought compensation from Riley’s former employer to cover costs associated with injuries he sustained and the lasting impact they would continue to have on his physical and mental health.

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