The Odd Truth, Dec. 13, 2004

The Odd Truth is a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world compiled by CBSNews.com's Brian Bernbaum.

Shot To The Heart!

SPOKANE, Wash. - A Moses Lake man is home recovering after a 2 1/8-inch nail - misfired from a nail gun - was removed from his chest.

"I told him that I thought the nail might be in his heart," said Dr. Mike Jemmette, the emergency-room physician at Deaconess Medical Center who first examined Steven Faber.

"He said, 'Sweet. Can I go snowboarding tomorrow?"' Jemmette reported.

Faber, 24, was injured Thursday while he was putting up siding on a garage in Cheney, about 15 miles south of Spokane. He said the nail gun malfunctioned when his business partner, Brent Heroux, handed it to him.

He credits Heroux and the hospital team for saving his life.

"I really thought I was dying," said Faber, co-owner with Heroux of Green Desert Construction. "It was like my whole life was crashing before my eyes."

Heroux called 911 and then started driving Faber to the hospital. An ambulance intercepted them and took Faber the rest of the way. Emergency room staff removed the clothes nailed to Faber's chest.

"Every time his heart would beat, it would move," Jemmette said of the nail. "We knew it was right next to or in his heart."

X-rays and ultrasound confirmed the nail had jabbed a chamber of the heart.

Faber was taken to the operating room and given anesthetic. Doctors were prepared to open his chest if the bleeding didn't stop when the nail was removed.

Heart surgeon Dr. Jack Leonard pulled out the nail, noting tongue-in-cheek: "I didn't use a claw hammer."

There was little bleeding and no need for surgery. Faber was discharged Saturday. He's expected to make a full recovery and will only need a week or so away from work.

Jemmette said he often sees nail-gun injuries in the emergency room.

"Nail guns are to be respected," he said. "I've seen nails in everything. I've seen nails in people's butts. I've seen nails in people's heads."

Faber plans to display the nail on his car's rearview mirror.

LiveStrong, Well Not Exactly

TAMPA, Fla. - A hospital chain is taping over patients' LiveStrong wristbands because they are yellow - the same color as the "do not resuscitate" bands it puts on patients who do not want to be saved if their heart stops.

No mix-ups have been reported, but BayCare Health Systems officials do not want to take any chances.

The popular LiveStrong rubber bracelets, designed by Nike, are sold through the Lance Armstrong Foundation as part of the champion bicycle racer's efforts to raise money for cancer research.

"It could be confusing, particularly in the situation of a code or a cardiac arrest where people have to think very quickly," said Lisa Johnson, vice president of patient services at Morton Plant Mease Health Care, which is part of the chain. "We wouldn't want to mistake a Lance Armstrong bracelet and not resuscitate someone we're supposed to."

Hospitals use colored bracelets to quickly tell doctors, nurses and other staff special instructions for certain patients. For example, at BayCare Health hospitals purple bands mean the patient is at risk of falling; red means the patient has allergies. Not all hospitals use the same coloring system.

Toilet Paper Scrap Honored

MADRID, Spain - A Bolivian lawyer has won a human rights award for a 32-year-old scrap of toilet tissue - the paper on which he penned a writ seeking examination of his case while jailed under a right-wing dictatorship.

The Spanish Bar Association honored Reynaldo Peters on Friday for his ingenuity in using a candle to heat up a dried ball point pen cartridge, composing a writ of habeas corpus destined for a Bolivian judge, and sneaking it out of prison with dirty laundry his wife took home to wash.

"I knew she would find it," Peters said after he accepted the award from Spanish Justice Minister Juan Fernandez Lopez Aguilar.

A writ of habeas corpus orders that a person in custody be brought before a court and places the burden of proof on those detaining the person to justify his detention.

Peters had been jailed in 1972 by the regime of Bolivian dictator Hugo Banzer over his membership in an opposition party.

Peters, who served as a government minister three times when democracy returned to Bolivia, said the writ was printed in the Bolivian press, drew the attention of the Red Cross and international human rights groups, and eventually led to his release.

He said he has kept the toilet paper as one of his most prized souvenirs.

66-Pound Tumor Removed

CINCINNATI - A woman who weighed more than 300 pounds noticed something strange happening to her body.

As she lost more than 60 pounds over several weeks without going on a diet, she said she could feel a large mass growing inside her.

"It didn't feel normal," Grace Radtke said. "It was like a long pregnancy."

After being encouraged by family members, she finally went for medical help that led to the removal of a 66-pound non-cancerous, ovarian tumor from her abdomen on Dec. 3 at University Hospital.

"I can't believe that thing was in me," said Radtke, a grocery store deli counter worker in her early 40s who lives in Peebles in southern Ohio.

Doctors in Hillsboro found a large mass, but could not determine whether it was cancerous and referred her to University Hospital.

Doctors there found a mucinous ovarian tumor, one of several kinds of ovarian cysts.

The tumors start when cells inside the walnut-sized ovaries grow out of control. There is no known cause in most cases. They can be triggered by family history, hormone imbalances, excess upper-body fat or other factors.

Dr. Gregory Duma and his team removed the tumor in one piece in a one-hour operation.

The team had to lift and roll the tumor so that surgeons could disconnect blood vessels feeding it from underneath. It took four sets of hands to lift the slippery, watermelon-shaped mass out of her body.

Radtke came to the hospital wearing 245 pounds. When she went home on Friday, she weighed 160 pounds.

"I'm just thankful I'm here," she said.

Woman Fired Over SpongeBob Balloon

PALM HARBOR, Fla. - A Burger King employee was fired after she refused to return a 10-foot-tall SpongeBob Squarepants balloon that she sold for $1,025 in an internet auction.

Viney Richards, 36, said a manager gave her the 50-pound balloon after it was taken down from the restaurant's roof.

But when she asked permission to be photographed by The Tampa Tribune, which was writing a story about the balloon's listing on the internet auction house eBay, she was told to stop talking to the media and return the balloon.

"I really like my job at Burger King," Richards said. "But I just couldn't give back the SpongeBob."

She said she was fired from her $6.15 an hour job on Wednesday.

The balloon was one of several listed on eBay. Dozens of the balloons have been stolen from the roofs of Burger Kings from Florida to Utah since the release of "The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie," authorities said.

Celebrity Nativity Scene Attacked

LONDON - A London wax museum says a nativity scene featuring soccer star David Beckham and his wife Victoria as the parents of Jesus has been damaged in an attack.

A museum spokeswoman says a man pushed over the figures of the Beckhams yesterday before running away.

The exhibit is closed as police investigate security footage.

The piece also shows President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prince Philip as the three Wise Men and actors Hugh Grant and Samuel L. Jackson as shepherds.

The spokeswoman says the exhibit was popular, and that the museum hopes to have it back up as soon as possible, although Church leaders have criticized the display.