I'm a bit confused....

[Phridae]

We had a pretty bad call this morning. It included a shotgun wound to the chest. Self inflicted. My question is, what else is in the chest cavity besides the heart and lungs? There cant be room for much more. I ask this because this guy had stuff hanging out of his chest. It looked like hamburger. Last I knew, there was nothing like that in the chest.

This whole situation hit home for the fire/rescue community here. It was a murder/suicide. The guy who shot his wife, then shot himself, was the brother of 2 firefighters. I didnt know him. This is my first gunshot call. Just doesnt happen in Delavan.

 

[Chimpie]

Do you happen to know if it was buck shot or spread?

Sometimes bullets will cause vacuums in the body, causing all kinds of matter to come out in the wounds. If he was using spread in the gun the "pellets" could have been bouncing all around inside cutting and ripping up this and that. If it was buck, the vacuum rule could be in effect.

As for dealing with the loss, yeah, this type of event can be rough. We lost my g/f's brother in Aug. 2003 almost the same way, except the girl he was dating killed him in his sleep, then killed herself.

 

[Jon]

First, Sorry for your Co's Loss.


Second, In the field, it is nexst to impossible to differantiate between a chest and an abdonminal wound. Bullets too easily bounce around in the body, and I've seen lacerated livers and spleens from a shot at the nippleline. Judgeing from your description, you probably saw intestines. There is a large amount of "dead space" in the abdomen to allow the lungs to expand, and once the diaphragm is pierced, things tend to come through from the abdominal cavity (which is filled to the brim) and then press on the lungs, causing decreased lung capacity.


Jon

 

[TTLWHKR]

Shootings are common in a rural area such as I live in. We had a guy shoot his wife seven times one evening a couple years ago w/ a scattergun, then shot himself. This must have been a big shotgun, b/c it oblitered his head, and took off an arm. His wife was shot in the pelvis, abdomen, chest, head, shoulder, left arm, and leg. It was nasty, wasn't dispatched as a shooting, so we had no idea. I was just going to run, throw up, then leave; but her chest wound was bubbling. She was still alive, and had a similar material "hamburger looking" extruding from her chest. I took it to be skin, muscle and fat tissue; and bone fragments. The exposed abdominal tissues, and intestine didn't look anything like this. The wound was actually larger than the entirity of the ACS (Asherman Chest Seal). Actually ran out of 10x30's, and had to use battlefield dressings.

Weird. The shooter was a past fireman, and well known business owner. Why he did it, I never asked her. She survived, if anyone doesn't believe in miracles, this is a great example. I've never seen so much blood in my life. The fact that it all took place in the dark, under the light of flash lights; just freaked me out. We didn't do a CISD, we talked to the police, and that was it. I think it frightened the crew so bad that nobody wanted to think about it again. I'm not afraid to admit that it tested all of my skills, and possibly made me afraid of the dark for the rest of my life. To lose one of our own in that manner was terribly troubling for everyone, I don't know if anyone will ever get over it. My grandfather talked about what it was like to lose his buddies in WWII. He was a medic with the 83rd Infantry. He said you can never forget their memory, and who they were is all you should remember, not how they were lost.

 

[ffemt8978]

Originally posted by Blueeighty8@Feb 11 2005, 08:53 PM
He said you can never forget their memory, and who they were is all you should remember, not how they were lost.

And he is truly a wise man. Words to live by, there.

 

[coloradoemt]

He said you can never forget their memory, and who they were is all you should remember, not how they were lost.

My Grandpa did the same thing, told me the same thing. Words to live by in any situation...