SHAWNEE, Kan. George Chandler says he didn't know a 2 1/2 -inch nail was driven into his skull until his buddy spotted it stuck through his cap.

Chandler said he felt only a sting.

"It never did really what you call hurt," the Shawnee man said today on NBC's "Today."

Chandler said his friend Phil Kern was using a nail gun to mount lattice on Chandler's deck when a hose on the powerful tool became caught.

Chandler said he stood up just as Kern tried to free the gun and it discharged. At first, they couldn't locate the nail. But then Kern saw it, he ordered Chandler to sit down while he called 911.

An emergency room doctor tried unsuccessfully to remove the nail with a pair of pliers.

"He looked at me and said, 'I need a claw hammer,'" Chandler recalled. "I thought, 'Ah, he's just teasing.'"

So the doctor borrowed a claw hammer from a worker to finish the job and sent Chandler home with a few stitches.

"He got a screwdriver at the same time, and he took the screwdriver and pried the nail up a little bit and got the claw hammer," Chandler said.