Stabbed in the Head

[Vampire Gerbil]

I think this topic might've come up before, but in case anyone missed it, I think this bears (bares?) repeating.

There was an episode of "Trauma - Life in the ER", where a fella was stabbed in the head with a fixed blade POS.
The story's here as well as a couple of X-Rays.
Three things that blow me away are:
1. The guy walked a few houses down to his buddy's house with the knife sticking out of his head.
2. In one X-Ray the blade is clearly bent, demonstrating either the stregth of the stabber, or the POSishness of the blade.
(POSishness IS a word, right?)
3. The guy lived.

Here's the link if you're inclined to see: http://tlc.discovery.com/tlcpages/trauma/patients/epilog1.html

PS - I'm the varmint formerly known as Fireprez

------------------
Vampire Gerbil: similar to a domestic gerbil, except for the odd accent and little black cape.

 

[misque]

OK Fireprez aka Vampire Gerbil,
how'd you change your handle?
I've since thought of a couple of new one's I wanna try.

------------------
If it's stupid but works, then it isn't stupid.

 

[Vampire Gerbil]

Misque, I emailed ya

------------------
Vampire Gerbil: similar to a domestic gerbil, except for the odd accent and little black cape.

 

[Mike Turber]

Well folks that happened right here in BladeForums.Com and my hometown of Jacksonville Florida!

Michael Hill, a furniture salesman and part-time disc jockey, was visiting a friend when he answered a knock at the door. Someone armed with a bayonet attacked Hill and stuck the bayonet into the right side of his skull. The knife penetrated about 6 inches into Hill's brain, the tip coming to rest just above his palate. Hill did not lose consciousness. In fact, he walked several houses down the street and knocked on a friend's door.

The friend called 911.

Jacksonville fire department paramedics rushed Hill to University Medical Center. His injury appeared almost certainly fatal. If the knife had cut any of the dozens of major blood vessels in his brain, or if it had crossed the brain's "midline" from the right hemisphere to the left, Hill would almost certainly die.

Miraculously, it did neither. The knife was removed in a four-hour surgery. Hill did not develop an infection from contaminants on the knife blade itself, and a week after he was attacked, he had recovered enough to leave the hospital.

Michael Hill now says that having a bayonet stuck through his brain was one of the "best things that ever happened" to him, because it gave him the opportunity to pull his life back together. However, he does face some long-term problems. His memory is not what it used to be, and he needs to take medication to prevent seizures -- both common effects of his kind of injury.

Since leaving the hospital, Hill has spent much of his time visiting and speaking to church groups in the Jacksonville area about his experience, and how his injury brought him back to religion.

_________________________
This was big news here.

------------------
Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
Do it! Do it right! Do it right NOW!
www.wowinc.com



[This message has been edited by Mike Turber (edited 21 September 1999).]

 

[Jim March]

My brother suffered a "brain injury" caused by *major* hydrocephalus, including months in a coma and over nine months of rehab. It certainly wasn't anything like this poor dude suffered BUT the short-term memory loss was nearly identical.

From my limited understanding from hanging around neurosurgeons for seven months almost every day, pretty much any brain trauma can cause problems with the short-term memory circuits. Good news #1 is that what you have in long-term memory (including personality and everything else that makes up "you") is retained. It's seperate. #2 is that short-term memory damage can heal, as in my brother's case...he's now 100% normal.

So our buddy here who survived the POS attack may have a brighter future than you'd think.

There are specific times when your brain will "voluntarily" shut down or restrict short-term memory functions, particularly in any of two or more types of "combat rage states". Been there, done that. Processing short-term memory seems to take up "CPU cycles" that are best spent elsewhere in a real hairball; how this relates to short-term memory loss after trauma I'm not certain, but a connection seems possible.

Jim March

[This message has been edited by Jim March (edited 22 September 1999).]

 

[mjjbecker]

I have seen several cases very similar to the one Mike mentioned in the UK press. Scary stuff.
I hope this isn't giving the folks at Cold Steel any ideas...

 

[Outlaw_Dogboy]

OK, V_G, 'fes up. How'd you change your handle? Or you could email me as well, but it might save more people asking if you just post it here.

Or is it hidden in the FAQ somewhere....?

------------------
Work hard, play hard, live long.
Outlaw_Dogboy

 

[MNH]

Back in the mid 19th century there was a blaster working on the railroads here in Vermont. He was employed drilling holes in the rock, filling and tamping the holes with explosives and firing the charges. One day as he was tamping a charge in a hole the charge went off. The Iron bar he was using (1 1/4" X 3') was propelled upward entering his head under the chin, and exiting out the top of his head. Believe it or not, it did not kill him, he lived a long life after the incident, although I don't believe he ever returned to his old job. He did however suffer a personality change which produced a number of criminal tendencies. This one is pretty well documented as it has been used to try to demonstrate that criminal behavior is organic.

I also remember hearing a story about a guy who was mugged in a park (in New York?) . He was beaten senseless. robbed. shot six times in the head at near contact distance with a .22 rimfire and left for dead. The man woke up sometime during the night, went home with a tremendous head ache, and went to bed. He went to the Emergency Department several days later because the head ache had not gone away. X-rays showed six tiny .22 bullets right there in his head.

We had a lady once when I was involved in EMS who came to the Emergency Department with "neck pain" four days after being involved in a traffic accident. She had limited range of motion, and point tenderness high in her neck. X-rays showed an unstable non displaced fracture at C-2. Why it didn't kill her is anyone's guess.

The thing that always amazed me is how much trauma a human being can absorb and live, and on the other hand how slight an insult can result in death.


Mike

 

[Tuff]

The guy walked severl houses down and contacted a friend?
Imagine being the friend? Open the door, and a person with a knife coming out of their skull is there. What if you saw him walking down the street? Do you stop and talk to him?

That knife sucks too. Not even full tang.

 

[Lizabelle]

oh man...i'd prolly think it was a joke or something...and laugh! and then when i realized it wasn't i'd prolly faint! what i'm wondering is why the guy didn't call 911 from his own house!! the knife must have already been affecting his mental capacity! sheesh.

------------------
I Love You!
God Loves You!
Does anything
else matter?
Liz <><
Matthew 5:16

http://www.angelfire.com/ar/lizzybeth/

 

[Oregon Duck]

Let this be a lesson to all of you knife fighters on BF--see what happens if you don't withdraw the blade, twist it, (probably not possible this time), or wiggle it around!?!
Stopping power and knife are terms I have never seen associated with one another.

Seriously though, I am glad the guy made it, as it sounds like he didn't deserve any of what happened.

 

[Axel Yup]

It' amazing what some people are able to walk away from. On the other hand, seemingly minor injuries are often deadly.

There was a news story recently in my local paper. Two women were arguing, one of them pulls out a knife and gives the other one a small nick on the chest. The woman puts a band-aid on the cut and goes to bed. She never wakes up. She bled to death internally because the knife hit an artery. The other woman was arrested for murder.

Axel

 

[cerulean]

I just saw an episode of "Trauma- Life in the ER". It's a pretty strange form of entertainment. In the episode I saw, two men were stabbed (both by their girlfriends coincedentally). One guy got stabbed in the shoulder and left the hospital shortly after treatment. The other guy was stabbed in the chest and died. Sounds like a good show for Cold Steel to debut their new tv ads.