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| Britain |
| Cleaning the Gene Pool with Explosives |
| 2003-05-09 |
| A Northamptonshire man who was fascinated with explosives blew himself up after putting a home-made pipe bomb in his mouth and lighting the fuse, an inquest has heard. Kevin Barnes, 20, of Joseph Priestly Court in Daventry, took the device into his mouth and flicked a lighter as his petrified flatmates and girlfriend looked on. The bomb, which might have been created using instructions from a book on explosives, then blew up, causing him serious head injuries, and he died on the same day. Sounds like his head was his least vital part, he didn't seem to be using it. Recording a verdict of accidental death, Northamptonshire Coroner Anne Pember said she was satisfied he had not intended to take his own life. She said complications from a risky medical procedure meant to save him contributed to his death. WTF? Is she saying the doctors are partly to blame for using extreme measures to try to save his life? Mr Barnes was described as a risk-taker with a history of harming himself and the inquest heard he had a short temper. "He was known far and wide as a man with a short fuse!" His girlfriend, Elizabeth Elliot, said: "My opinion was that Kevin was mucking about but didn't actually mean for the pipe bomb to go off. People threatened to go to the police about it but Kevin was Kevin; nobody had the guts to." "Hey, watch this............Boom!" |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #10 Probably the same guy. I can't imagine many people doing it precisely that way, especially multiple times. The guy was from Severna Park, between Baltimore and Annapolis, if I remember correctly. |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-05-09 19:11:48 |
| #9 Fred - I read a newspaper story years ago about a guy who screwed up killing himself & blew his face off with a shotgun - twice. Both times they repaired him & gave him psychiatric help. The third time he succeeded in offing himself. It's got to be the same guy - there couldn't possibly be two of them (could there?). |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2003-05-09 15:17:39 |
| #8 One of the dangers from this type of injury involves securing the airway. The intubation tube can, due to the damage, go through the throat into the brain. That would be my first guess as to the medical procedure involved. As Fred found out, you can live with a whole lot of your face blown off. Look at Helen Thomas. In this case, having a short temper and having a short fuse are one and the same, apparently. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-05-09 14:36:13 |
| #7 Definitely a Darwin Awards Hall-of-famer... |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-05-09 13:34:53 |
| #6 I took an EMT course a few years ago, and one of the training vids featured a guy who'd tried to dispose of himself by the old shotgun under the chin trick. (Chuck's probably seen this one, too.) Unfortunately for him, rather than pointing the gun back, he had it pointed slightly forward, and he blew off his face - eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, the whole shebang. The paramedics intubated him and kept him alive long enough to get him to the local shock-trauma center, where they actually saved his life, though I understand he had to be fed through a tube and life, while painful, wasn't very interesting for him. Since the event was a local thing, I was still riding ambos when I heard about his second subsequent attempt to off himself, which was also unsuccessful. Just as well Mr. "Hey, y'all! Look what happens when I do this" succeeded the first time, even though he may not have intended to... |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-05-09 13:23:48 |
| #5 The really frightening part is that there was actually a girl dumb enough to find this idiot attractive enough to date. She should be the real Darwin Award nominee. Let's just pray she's not pregnant with a Jr. Mind Blower. |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2003-05-09 12:59:08 |
| #4 [C]omplications from a risky medical procedure meant to save him contributed to his death. Oh, for crying out loud, does this mean they're gonna sue the hospital for trying to save him? This totally reeks of the same stench that article about British citizens being responsible for injuries to attackers/burglars left on here the other day. Wonder what was the last thing that went through his mind--beside his teeth. |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-05-09 12:49:06 |
| #3 I'll be the 1st to make him a Darwin Award nominee |
| Posted by: Yosemite Sam 2003-05-09 12:47:27 |
| #2 Yes, he was definitely mucking about. A darwin award candidate if I ever saw one. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-05-09 12:47:15 |
| #1 She said complications from a risky medical procedure meant to save him contributed to his death. What did they do, try to glue his head back on? Damn socialized medicine! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-05-09 12:45:08 |