3 1/2-inch nail removed from man's brain ORLAND PARK, Ill., Jan. 20 (UPI) -- An Illinois man is recovering after surgery to remove a 3 1/2-inch nail he didn't realize he had inadvertently shot into his brain, his fiance said. Dante Autullo, 32, was recovering Friday at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn after surgery Thursday to remove the nail and replace a contaminated piece of skull with mesh and titanium, the Chicago Tribune reported. He had shot the nail into his brain with a nail gun while working in the garage of his Orland Park home in suburban Chicago Tuesday morning -- but didn't know it for 36 hours. The nail gun had recoiled, bringing it against his head, and he thought the small wound was from contact with the gun, his fiance, Gail Glaenzer, said. Autullo was walking, talking, even working at his side job shoveling snow Tuesday, with the nail in his brain, and then went to work Wednesday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. But the pain grew severe after a nap Wednesday. His head hurt. I asked him what his pain was on a scale of 1 to 10 and he said, 14. And he was nauseous," Glaenzer said. The nail was millimeters from the part of the brain that controls all motor functions, X-rays showed. Autullo was awake and talking Friday at the hospital, where he was expected to remain three more days.