‘Defective’ nail gun shoots nail through carpenter’s tongue and head, lawsuit says
A California carpenter is suing a power tool manufacturer over its “defective” nail gun he says misfired and shot a nail through his tongue and into his head while he was at work.
Timothy Kualii Kahae, who is now 28, needed emergency surgery to remove the nail that was lodged in the base of his skull in an incident that left him “permanently scarred,” a complaint filed Nov. 3 in federal court says.
While working as an apprentice carpenter for Plant Construction Company L.P., which is based in San Francisco, Kahae was nailing down plywood on the fourth floor of a construction site with the Hitachi Pneumatic Nailer nail gun on Nov. 15, 2021, according to the complaint.
This is when the nail gun misfired and simultaneously shot out two nails — one of which ricocheted off the other nail, launching it upward and into Kahae’s tongue and skull, the complaint says.
Kahae, who “went into shock,” approached his co-workers, bleeding, to report what happened and was taken to a Stanford health clinic, where he needed emergency surgery, according to the complaint.
He ultimately had to wait a day for the surgical procedure to remove the nail, repair wounds to his tongue and the roof of his mouth, and more, the complaint says.
Kahae racked up more than $400,000 in medical bills and missed out on $30,000 in wages as a result of his injuries, according to the complaint.
Now, Kahae, of San Francisco, is suing the nail gun’s manufacturers, Hitachi Koki U.S.A., a Georgia-based corporation, and Koki Holdings Co., which is based in Japan, the complaint shows. He accuses them of negligence.
McClatchy News attempted to reach the companies for comment on Nov. 8 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
2014 recall on Hitachi Pneumatic Nailers
In June 2014, the companies issued a recall of more than 25,000 of their Hitachi Koki Pneumatic Nailer nail guns, the complaint says.
The recall, announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, included a hazard notice, saying the “nailers can jam and override the safety switch that permits only one nail to fire at a time, posing an injury risk.”
In addition to 25,000 nail guns recalled in the U.S., 300 were recalled in Canada, the alert said.
The lawsuit accuses the companies’ nail guns — with a model number of NR83A — of continuing to have dangerous defects, similarly to the nailers recalled in 2014.
“Defendants’ nailers possess defects that make them unreasonably dangerous for their intended use by consumers because of their propensity to jam and override the safety switch, causing two nails to fire at once; just as it did to Timothy,” the complaint says.
Kahae used the nail gun the way it was intended to be used and did not “misuse or materially alter” it, according to the complaint.
Kahae’s ‘life altering’ injuries
The nail gun misfiring in November 2021 caused Kahae to sustain “significant, life altering, oral trauma and facial injuries,” the complaint says.
He still experiences numbness in his tongue, specifically where the nail punctured it, and this has led to him developing a stutter, according to the complaint.
His lower lip is also scarred, the complaint says.
“These needless injuries will continue to plague Timothy for the rest of his young life,” the complaint says.
With the lawsuit, Kahae demands a trial by jury and seeks to recover unspecified general, special, economic and non-economic damages for injuries.
McClatchy News contacted Plant Construction Company, his employer during the time of his nail gun injury, according to complaint, and his attorney for comment and didn’t receive an immediate response on Nov. 8.
This story was originally published November 8, 2023 at 12:28 PM with the headline "‘Defective’ nail gun shoots nail through carpenter’s tongue and head, lawsuit says."
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