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| Giffords breathing on her own |
| 2011-01-12 |
| Doctors say an Arizona congresswoman is breathing on her own after being shot in the head. Dr. Michael Lemole, Giffords' neurosurgeon, says they've left a breathing tube in Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to protect her airway, but the congresswoman is drawing breaths on her own. She's alert and responding to doctors. Doctors also now think that Giffords may have been shot in the front of the head, not the back. After she was wounded last weekend, doctors said the bullet traveled the length of the left side of the congresswoman's brain, entering the back of the skull and exiting the front. At a briefing Tuesday, Dr. Peter Rhee said it now looks like she was probably shot in the front, with the bullet going out the back, although they can't say for certain. He said that's based on consultations with two specialists who came to Tucson, Ariz. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #6 Assume nothing about the brain. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-01-12 17:04 |
| #5 Very glad Congresswoman Giffords is doing so well. Hope she continues her steady progress. These types of injuries often take a long time to recover from. We had one of the principals shot in the head by a student in one of our schools. It took her nearly a year to recover. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-01-12 13:39 |
| #4 Does this suggest the guy used cheap high-powered ammo with a full metal jacket which simply traveled straight through and didn't do the horrendous damage that a hollow-point would? Probably ball ammo/something that doesn't fragment easily. Had this been a "stopper round" such as Remington Golden Saber, Speed Gold Dot, etc., I think far more damage would have been done and the Congress woman would be much worse off. I'm a little surprised that it is difficult to determine exit and entrance wounds. It seems that not much cavitation occurred. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2011-01-12 13:09 |
| #3 I initially thought that the bullet was front to back, until reports said otherwise, for the simple reason that the forehead skull is thicker than the rear of the head skull. That is, a bullet entering with full momentum from the front might make a clean hole, and still have enough momentum to exit out the back, but not the other way around. Call it a hunch. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-01-12 11:25 |
| #2 It does 'suggest' it. Bound to be bullets found to substantiate with facts at some time. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2011-01-12 06:10 |
| #1 Dr. Peter Rhee said it now looks like she was probably shot in the front, with the bullet going out the back, although they can't say for certain. Does this suggest the guy used cheap high-powered ammo with a full metal jacket which simply traveled straight through and didn't do the horrendous damage that a hollow-point would? |
| Posted by: gorb 2011-01-12 03:09 |