High-explosive .50 cal bullet in the skull...

[NepoZnati]

A SOLDIER underwent a five-hour brain op to remove a high-explosive bullet - which could have blown his head off at any moment.

Army surgeons donned BODY ARMOUR after the Afghan man was rushed in following a bomb blast.

Non-essential staff were evacuated when a scan on what was thought to be just shrapnel revealed it to be a 2½in incendiary round.
...

LINK: The SUN (UK)


P.S. Even that is sensationalistic in claiming that bullet would kill ALL surgical team, it is still remarkable Op.

 

[lightsandsirens5]

How about that guy in Viet Nam who got hit by a dud 60mm mortar round. The doctor and one corpsman did the whole operation behind sandbag walls.

 

[NepoZnati]

Oh, yeah... I remember that story! Scary.

 

[lightsandsirens5]

I can't find the story online. The guys x-ray was pretty cool.

 

[mycrofft]

Here it is. (I feel like Dug the Dog in "UP").

http://www.emtlife.com/showthread.php?t=13150&highlight=mortar

http://books.google.com/books?id=lFYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA97-IA2&lpg=PA97-IA2&dq=%22Vietcong+Mortar+Shell+Inside+a+Living+Soldier%22&source=bl&ots=Nu5N6pFWx6&sig=Q5KP6J8DiR0YtWIbNNmTgxqxQJ0&hl=en&ei=XLbDS8myFMWyngf7hpy2Cg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22Vietcong%20Mortar%20Shell%20Inside%20a%20Living%20Soldier%22&f=false

 

[lightsandsirens5]

^ Thanks Dug.

~~~~~~~~~~~

My dad has got a friend who was in the Army who was hit in the head with a 20mm HE round. It just barely grazed his head and took off his ear. Unfortunatly it did leave him with some minor brain damage, but all he lost was some short term memory I believe.

 

[NepoZnati]

I saw the guy who got .50 cal in the right side of the head. Went trhu and brain leaked, but... Year after I saw him talking, smiling, walking and such. With big dent on the right side, of course... Also another one who got shrapnel in central lobe, but in the gray mass and between centers who end up with no traumatic brain injury that I know of, but with big hole in front of his head.

It is crazy word put there.

 

[mycrofft]

It is a crazy world out there

FACT: people who shoot themselvs with small caliber handguns in the head and survive essentially intact almost always report that they no longer suffer from depression, and almost never go on to try suicide again (at least as of 1973 or so).

 

[NepoZnati]

.22 cure?

fact: People who shoot themselvs with small caliber handguns in the head and survive essentially intact almost always report that they no longer suffer from depression, and almost never go on to try suicide again (at least as of 1973 or so).

 

[mycrofft]

Self administered prefrontal lobotomy

Literally...

 

[firetender]

FACT: people who shoot themselvs with small caliber handguns in the head and survive essentially intact almost always report that they no longer suffer from depression, and almost never go on to try suicide again (at least as of 1973 or so).

That may be because they're distracted by that persistent ringing in their ears!

 

[lightsandsirens5]

OK, while we are on head injuries.......a while ago in Spokane, WA I believe, a man was driving behind a supply truck of some sort when a peice of rebar fell off and speared him in the head. When fire arrived on scene, the found a very alert pt sitting in his driver seat with a peice of rebar running thru the windshield, thru his head (dead center in his forehead, just above his brow line) and into the headrest. The guy survived with no brain damage. Apperently the rebar had penetrated his skull and travelled right thru the middle if his head, between the left and right lobes and above the brain stem, barely touching any of his brain tissue.

 

[NepoZnati]

WOW... That's crazy stuff. :wacko:

 

[mycrofft]

Associated Press reported it.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/reba03.shtml


I've seen xrays of folks with nails from nail guns like that, only superior to inferior, not A-P.
Remember the movie "Hannibal" where Ray Liota's character is eating his own brains as Dr Lecter is frying them up for him? Theoretically....maybe.

 

[mycrofft]

Couldn't resist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da8vlinABz0

 

[Jon]

Intresting. As for unexploded ordinence, this article:
http://nursing.advanceweb.com/Editorial/Content/Editorial.aspx?CC=189253
quoted a local physician as saying there have been 38 documented cases with UXO involved... including one he did in Iraq - that was an interesting case study that I got to see.

Interestingly enough, this doc, John Chovanes, was also involved with assisting in the medical care of the 2 Port Authority cops that were entrapped in the rubble of the twin towers.