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Looks like someone had a bit of an issue with a pneumatic nail gun?!
Did the patient survive?
And more importantly, if he did, was there any noticeable difference in personality and/or mental capacity?
(Or, in other words, did anybody notice?)

There's a good chance he did survive that, although there most likely would be changes in at least personality. I'm not sure if you've seen it, but there's a rather famous old x-ray of a railroad worker who got a very big piece of metal rammed through his skull (by some badly placed or timed dynamite, I think) and he lived to tell about it. The only difference was that he became very grumpy and lazy.

I've always thought it's amazing how some people survive enormous injuries almost unscathed, especially when you think about how some very minor ones can be fatal.

- Joe

Being a construction worker I've heard many (and have seen a few) doosies when it comes to surviving horrific accidents.

There was an elevator installer working on the bottom of a shaft that caught and Iron Worker's drift pin in his hard hat. The pin went through the hat and into his skull, or at least cracked it pretty good (his skull). The poor guy was never the same after that. His personality changed, became mean and surly. Lost his job, marriage, etc. Tough break.

Another guy fell onto a large concrete footing with 10’ of rebar protruding up from it. Yup, he was skewered on it, right through the middle. They carefully cut the bar from the footing to free him, loaded him into an ambulance and drove him to the hospital to have it removed. As you may have guessed, the long rebar did not fit in the back of the ambulance, they had to leave one of the rear doors open and had it sticking out the back! The rebar missed all vital organs and the guy was back to work in a week. It was not long after that that those little mushroom shaped safety caps appeared.

Then there was another guy, short but very wide (stocky). He was a crusty old one-armed equipment operator/oiler. He lost his arm while oiling a crane. There was some safety gear missing and his arm got pulled into the cable gears. He ripped his arm out of its socket and completely off of his torso, stumbled down off the crane, never lost consciousness. A guy nearby pulled his shirt off, ran over and stuffed it into the open chest cavity. Needless to say the old guy got a healthy settlement but would have preferred to keep his arm.


Cheers!:p

holy smokes....Kev.

Gory stories in deed.

The head-injury-caused-him-to-become-an-jerk story reminds me of the classic Atticus Finch. (spike through the head)

And more importantly, if he did, was there any noticeable difference in personality and/or mental capacity?
(Or, in other words, did anybody notice?)
Most likely not...

I think about things like, if I lost half of my brain, would anybody notice? :eek:

Thanks Kev. That's an X-ray I acquired off the net. I'd be in deep doo doo if I posted a film from a patient without consent. :tisk: :D

Thanks Kev. That's an X-ray I acquired off the net. I'd be in deep doo doo if I posted a film from a patient without consent. :tisk: :DI'd bet you've seen your share of interesting injuries. Any that you'd like to share?

I'd bet you've seen your share of interesting injuries. Any that you'd like to share?

The worst injuries I've encountered were during my training, and they were people riding crotch rocket bikes. They always had a wealth of serious injuries, leaving plenty for the different surgical disciplines to fix. One of these guys (on a crotch rocket) T-boned a small truck and physically knocked the truck over onto it's side.

The very worst I ever took care of (along with two other CRNAs, an anesthesiologist, and two go-fers) was a 17 year old kid who hit a street signal at speeds over 100 mph. Roughly a 75 kg male has around 5000 cc blood volume. I transfused over 40000 cc (or 8 times his blood volume) of blood and blood products into this kid. The strangest thing was he lived to tell about it.

This kid was bleeding from every hole in his body: ears, weeping from his eyes, his lungs, and everywhere else. When the surgeon made an incision into his chest blood shot about a foot into the air. If this kid hadn't been 17 and healthy he'd be doornail dead today. He was so swollen they couldn't close his chest, they covered it with sterile dressings. The next day this kid was awake writing notes to his parents, with his chest still open. The most impressive sight was the surgery room when everything was done. The room looked like a person exploded.

It is amazing how fragile our bodies can be in the right circumstances and yet how much damage we can survive in other circumstances.