[chris]

Australian police are still searching for clues in the death of 27-year-old Chen (Anthony) Liu, whom homicide squad detectives believe died from injuries sustained from a high-powered nail gun. In this police handout image made available April 24, 2009, the X-ray clearly shows 34 nails embedded in Chen's skull. Chen's decomposing body was discovered in Sydney's Georges River in November 2008.

[chris]

When a friend told 27-year-old Kong Lin of eastern China heard a joke, Lin laughed so forcefully that he swallowed a 4-inch long pair of scissors he was using as a toothpick, reported the U.K.'s Daily Mail. The scissors, which became lodged in Lin's throat, required surgical removal. Fortunately, according to the story, Lin emerged from the experience relatively unscathed.

[chris]

Emerson de Oliveira Abreu required five hours of high-risk surgery after a fishing spear, which he apparently fired himself, ricocheted off rocks and penetrated his head and brain, The Associated Press reports. Abreu was injured while diving off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The six-inch blade penetrated so deeply into his head that only the tip was visible, according to family members and authorities.

[chris]

Yi Zhao, 57, of Chongqing, central China, arrived at a hospital with 16 inches of pipe sticking out of his left eye socket. Firefighters were forced to cut the pipe from the plumbing in Zhao's home after the man slipped in the bath and impaled his eye on the metal tap, according to a news report from the Central European News agency. When the pipe made it impossible for doctors to fit Zhao into a CT scanner, the physicians reportedly tried to call a plumber.

[chris]

Wen Wen, 38, of central China walked into Jiaotong University clinic in Xi'an with the entire blade of a knife buried in his head after his father allegedly stabbed him, according to a report from Central European News. One ER nurse reportedly fainted as Wen walked up to reception with the hilt of the knife poking out of his head and casually answered questions about his injury.

[chris]

On the left is an X-ray of a typical skull, while on the right is an X-ray of 9-year-old Jordan Taylor's skull following an accident in which a truck hit a car he was riding in.. The force of the impact shifted the boy's head about an inch forward, effectively separating his skull from his spine.

[chris]

Eleven-year-old Chinese schoolboy Liu Cheong had a brush with death when his friend shot him in the head with a 16-inch arrow, according to numerous international media reports. The arrow entered his skull through the eye socket and lodged in the back of his head. Somehow, the boy was spared a fatal brain injury.

[chris]

This X-ray shows how, during a fall, a car key penetrated the eyelid of 17-month-old Nicholas Holderman of Kentucky, reaching his brain. While doctors initially believed that the object had ruptured Nicholas' eyeball, another team of specialists later confirmed that the boy had sustained no permanent damage.

[chris]

In this undated Metropolitan Police handout, X-ray images show how a teenage boy cheated death when a 5-inch knife was plunged into his head. The 16-year-old and two other young men were injured when they tried to stop a friend getting robbed at a bus stop. The teenager was rushed to hospital with the kitchen knife still stuck in his forehead after the attack in Walworth, south London, last November.

[chris]

According to local reports, 19-year-old Chris Clear was moving a roto-tiller on April 22 when a pin from the machine was thrown loose. It entered his nose and lodged in his brain, where it was eventually found by doctors during an X-ray. While Clear's initial prognosis was grim, surgeons were able to remove the pin in a marathon nine-hour surgery. Clear has reportedly lost some of his peripheral vision from the accident.