US man Dante Autullo made headlines after accidentally shooting his head with a nail gun, leaving a 9cm-long object lodged in the centre of his brain for almost two days before going to hospital.

Mr Autullo, from Orland Park, Illinois, who later showed off his amazing X-ray photos on his Facebook page, went to hospital 36 hours after he shot himself.

However, he had not realised the severity of the situation because the nail had left only a tiny scratch when it entered his brain – making him think it had almost completely missed him.

The father of four as forced to seek treatment after complaining of nausea and headaches after taking a nap, and went for a check-up.

Doctors hailed him as something of a medical miracle as he was ‘walking and talking’ – and later revealed the nail had lodged itself just millimetres from the section that controls motor functions.

Mr Autullo’s fiancée Gail Glaenzer said she thought it was ‘a miracle’ he had survived, after undergoing successful surgery at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois, to remove the nail and install a titanium plate in his skull.

‘Un-freaking-believable,’ she exclaimed, when asked her thoughts on it by local paper the Naperville Sun.

Mr Autullo is said to be recovering well from the ordeal. (AP)

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A woman told how a one-in-a-million medical condition led to her being born with TWO fully-formed vaginas.

Hazel Jones, 27, said it means she has lost her virginity TWICE.

But she added she was so at ease with her body that she goes to sex clubs with her husband.

First, Hazel told ITV1′s This Morning hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield she was 18 before being diagnosed with uterus didelphys.

It occurs when a barrier between two tubes that form the uterus fails to break down during development, leaving two internal channels.

Hazel, of High Wycombe, Bucks, did not realise she was different until her periods started at 14. She said: "I told friends. They looked even more confused than me."

She went to hospital four years later to learn the truth. She added: "I thought it was amazing."

Hazel told The Sun she and hubby Riki visited fetish clubs, explaining: "It shows how relaxed I am.

"My quirky condition does not make me shy or hold me back. In fact, it’s something I celebrate." (The Sun)

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• Reuben and Floren were conceived at the same time but born five years apart

Reuben Blake has just started Primary school but he will be 10 before his twin sister is old enough to join him.

For although the brother and sister were conceived from the same batch of embryos, they were born five years apart.

Simon Blake, 45 and his 38-year-old wife Jody had been trying to start a family without success and began fertility treatment in 2005.

During the medical process, five embryos were created and two implanted in Mrs Blake, which resulted in the birth of Reuben weighing 9lbs 5oz on December 9 2006.

The remaining three embryos were frozen until the couple, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, decided to try for another child last year.

Two of the embryos didn’t survive the defrosting process but the final embryo was successfully implanted.

Mr Blake said: ‘We got very lucky first time around. We were just overjoyed at having Reuben – he was healthy and happy.

‘But after some time we thought that most of our friends who had conceived naturally had had second children and we wanted to complete the family.

‘We were aware the odds were long. There aren’t a huge amount of reliable statistics because it isn’t done that often, but we knew it was a long shot.

‘You just can’t comprehend that a life could come from some material that’s been frozen for that length of time.’

Floren arrived weighing 8lbs 12oz on November 16 2011 – two weeks before her due date – but five years after her twin brother.

Mr Blake said: ‘When people take an interest in a newborn baby and with Reuben around as well, I find it very difficult to resist the temptation to say "Oh and by the way they are twins".

‘It’s almost just to see people’s response. They are really amazed and surprised.’ (Daily Mail)

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Diana Ross famously sang that you can’t hurry love – and for one couple with a combined age of 177, three decades of waiting have finally paid off.

Robert Whittle, 84, and Vera Lawrence, 93, tied the knot on New Year’s Day after a 33-year fairytale romance.

The couple were married in front of around 30 delighted friends and family at St Luke’s Church in their hometown of Beccles, Suffolk.

The devoted pair remained seated throughout the ceremony.

There was not a dry eye in the house when, at the end of the service, the new Mrs Whittle declared: ‘This is the happiest day of my life – and it has been a long one and a happy one.’

Robert and Vera met through a local bowls club and their love affair blossomed after they were paired up in competitions.

After 33 years together, Vera bravely decided to propose to Robert five weeks ago.

The Rev John Beauchamp, who conducted the ceremony, said the couple’s bungalow was ‘a place filled with the light of love’.

He told them: ‘Today is a special moment in your journey together.’

Robert, who has two children, said after the service that he was ‘very, very happy’ to have got married. His new wife described it as a ‘lovely day’.

The Rev Beauchamp said this wedding was the first time he had married anyone over the age of ninety.

‘It is absolutely fantastic that after 33 years together they have taken the decision to get married,’ he said.

‘They are a very lovely couple.’ (Mail Online)

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Twins Seth and Preston Campbell celebrate their first Christmas after being born TWO days apart in TWO different counties.

The miracle pair had to spend ten weeks in intensive care with their mum Donna Grove when she suffered a heart attack after the birth.

Medics put the survival rate of all three at a million to one. Cuddling the eight-month-old brothers yesterday, Donna, 27, said: "I am overwhelmed with emotion. I can’t believe we were all home for Christmas and New Year."

Donna gave birth to 2lb 6oz Seth at Frimley Park Hospital in Camberley, Surrey, when she was just 28 weeks pregnant.

He wasn’t breathing and went on to develop a life-threatening intestine infection, a heart murmur and blood poisoning.

An ambulance whisked him to St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, West London, and Donna had Preston there 50 hours later. She then suffered a cardiac arrest after fluid from his womb sac infected her blood stream.

Dad James, 26, a painter and decorator from Bracknell, Berks, said: "The evening after the second birth was a dark, dark time.

"I feared I was going to lose them all." He has since proposed.

The twins now weigh a healthy 15lbs each.

Donna added: "This year has been the toughest but also the best as we have two beautiful boys and we are a proper family.

"We’re the luckiest family in the world." (The Sun)

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A 99-year-old Italian man and his wife of 77 years are to become the world’s oldest couple to divorce after his 96-year-old wife had an affair 70 years ago.

The husband, identified by lawyers in the case as Antonio C, found out about the adultery when he was looking through an old chest of just before Christmas.

He immediately asked his wife, who is identified as Rosa C, for a divorce as he was so upset over the betrayal.

Court papers released in Rome this week revealed that she sent letters to her lover during a secret affair in the 1940s.

The couple have five children, a dozen grandchildren and one great-grand child, but the discovery proved to be the last straw for the marriage, which reportedly ran into trouble ten years ago.

Lawyer Anna Orecchioni said: ‘The husband decided to file for divorce after finding the love letters. He felt betrayed and unable to carry on with the marriage which has lasted 77 years.’

The pair met in the 1930s when Antonio was posted in Naples as a Carabinieri officer.

In Britain the oldest couple to file for divorce was Bertie and Jessie Wood, who ended their 36-year marriage in 2009 when they were both two years away from becoming centenarians. (Metro)

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A British angler travelled to Papua New Guinea to snare a fish known to feast on the testicles of men.

After hearing two local men had died after being castrated by a fish while swimming in a river, causing them to bleed to death, Jeremy Wade went in search of the mysterious beast.

Following weeks of searching, he discovered the perpetrator was the Pacu fish, also known locally as the Ball Cutter, which is renowned for its powerful jaws.

After hooking the 40lb predator with a fishing line and dragging it onto his small fishing boat, Mr Wade was shocked by what he found.

‘When I reeled it in, it had this mouth which was surprisingly human-like, it is almost like they have teeth specially made for crushing.

‘They are like human molars and the fish have powerful jaw muscles. They are very deep bodied and solid like a carp, with strong muscles.’

Pacu fish are usually found in the Amazon, where they use their teeth to crack the tough shells of nuts and seeds.

Mr Wade’s adventure will be shown as part of his new series of River Monsters, aired on ITV next week. (wrapup)

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We’ve all lost pens down the back of a sofa but one woman managed to misplace one for 25 years – after she swallowed it by accident.

The surprising find only came to light after the 76-year-old woman visited her doctor suffering from weight loss and diarrhoea.

An urgent investigation revealed areas of the woman’s large intestine had become inflamed, which was causing the abdominal pain.

Doctors at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital Foundation Trust then took a CT scan of her abdomen where they were amazed to find a ‘linear object’ that looked much like a pen.

When questioned, the patient remembered that 25 years before she had used a felt-tip pen to poke her tonsils while looking at them in a mirror. However, she had then fallen forward off a step and swallowed the pen by accident.

Her husband and GP had dismissed her story at the time after plain abdominal X-rays came up normal.

The doctors performed a gastroscopy, which confirmed there was a plastic felt-tip pen sitting in the lumen of the woman’s stomach.

It hadn’t caused her any gastric damage – indeed the symptoms that had prompted the investigation in the first place had resolved themselves.

The medical team her decided that they should remove the pen as there was a small risk it could perforate her stomach lining.

It was removed under general anaesthetic and amazingly the doctors found the pen was still in working order.

Reporting the case in British Medical Journal Case Reports, the team led by Dr Oliver Waters, concluded: ‘Occasionally it may be worth believing the patient’s account however unlikely it may be.’ (Daily Mail)

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A cat nipped to the top of the feline rich list after inheriting nearly £10MILLION.

But the Italian moggy is still only the THIRD richest animal in the world.

Tommasino’s wealthy owner Maria Assunta died and left him the entire family fortune.

She rescued him as a stray and could think of no one better to leave her portfolio of property to after she died last month aged 94 with no living relatives.

It means the cat is the proud owner of homes and villas across Italy as well as stocks and swollen bank accounts.

Her lawyers, Anna Orecchioni and Giacinto Canzona, say she left the fortune to Tommasino in a will she wrote and deposited with them at their office in Rome in 2009.

Mrs Orecchioni explained that under Italian law Tommasino is not entitled to inherit the money directly so it was ultimately entrusted to Maria’s nurse, Stefania.

Mrs Orecchioni said: "In the end we decided that Stefania was the most suitable person to administer the money that Maria had left in her will.

"To be honest he doesn’t need all that money. He is happy with a saucer of milk and some biscuits."

Stefania said: "I had no idea that she was worth so much."

The world’s richest animal is believed to be Gunter, a German shepherd who was left more than £90million by his wealthy heiress owner Karlotta Liebenstien.

In 1988, British recluse Ben Rea left his £9million fortune to his cat Blackie. (The Sun)

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• Two brothers collapse and die in front of their families one after the other
• Third brother suffers heart attack at same time while visiting their mother in hospital

Doctors were investigating how two Italian brothers suffered fatal heart attacks on the same day while a third was left fighting for his life.

The bizarre incident happened on November 29 as Guido Garofalo, 45, and his older brother Alberto Mario, 53, were on a picnic with their wives and children.

First to have a heart attack was Guido who collapsed to the ground in front of the horrified group

But as his brother Alberto Mario tried to save him, he too grabbed at his chest.

Paramedics were immediately called to the scene at Pianeta di Nicolosi on the slopes of Mount Etna near Catania on the island of Sicily but both were declared dead by the helicopter crew that had arrived to help.

The terrible chain of coincidence then continued as it emerged a third brother Salvatore, whose age is not known, suffered a heart attack at approximately the same time as he visited their mother in hospital.

Doctors and nurses rushed to help him and he is this afternoon recovering in the intensive care unit.

Staff said the fact he was in a hospital when he had the attack had ‘probably saved his life’.

He has not been informed of his brothers’ death and a sister who lives in Rome, and who is known to suffer from a heart condition, has also not been told.

Dr Thekia Maurhoff, of the Garibaldi hospital in Catania, said: ‘All three cases are being investigated – it is quite unique and I have never heard of anything similar like this happening three heart attacks in three brothers all at the same time.

‘From initial checks it would appear that all three brothers suffered from a heart condition and this lead to them all suffering attacks, virtually at the same time and in two cases they proved to be fatal.

‘Salvatore is currently in a stable condition in the intensive care unit of the hospital and his condition is being closely monitored but the fact he was in hospital at the time certainly helped save his life.’

Professor Filippo Crea, an expert at the cardiology unit of Rome’s Cattolica University, said: ‘Genetic factors almost certainly played a part in this tragic event as heart attacks in those aged under 60 are usually caused for those reasons.’ (Daily Mail)

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