16 penny nail in the brain

We're using pneumatic nail guns to frame this house that I'm helping to build (I got a job building a couple of houses). And it got me thinking about what would happen if I took a nail in the head - it's really easy for a nail to become a projectile when the gun double shoots, hitting the edge of a board or glances off a knot. My boss did this (the double shot on the edge one) while he was showing me how he wanted a wall put together and the trajectory of the nail ran very near to his truck. I made a joke about checking his tires and we kept working - but I try to stay out of the ballistic path of all nail guns. I did have my hand punctured by a 16 penny framing nail in this manner (the glanced off a knot one). That was about 6 years ago, but you never forget a thing like that.

So throughout the last few days I've been contemplating the possibility of taking a 16 penny nail to the head. It's unlikely that it would kill you, but it would most likely cause some brain damage. So I've been thinking about the possiblility of living with brain damage. And I realized that it probably wouldn't be that bad - maybe some memory loss, the loss of some motor skill, or the loss of some verbal skill - I'd manage. Initially there'd be some pain involved, but this would heal. I have no lasting effects from the nail in my hand and it didn't hurt very much. I didn't even use any of the pain killers that the doctor prescribed. At first I didn't feel it at all - I was looking around to see where the nail had gone because I could see that it wasn't in the board. I saw it in my hand before I felt it. I imagine that getting one in the head wouldn't be any worse than getting hit in the head with an airsoft gun or something.

What would be really bad would be cutting myself with a circular saw - taking a thumb off or something.