Boston Bomber Possible Suicide Attempt

The news reports of the wounds suffered by the Boston bomber suspect being treated at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center grow more interesting by the hour. ABC News is now reporting that the suspect has a wound in the back of the neck, which is leading investigators to conjecture that the wound may be the result of an self-inflicted wound in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. One scenario being discussed is that the suspect may have placed the end of the gun barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger but failed to kill himself. From a purely clinical point of view and assuming the suspect did not flinch and give himself an off center shot through the cheekbone, this would be a very rare outcome. Almost always, when a person swallows a gun barrel and pulls the trigger, massive tissue damages occurs and death is usually very rapid. Damage to the spinal cord and midbrain structures, pons, and medulla that control the respiratory drive occurs, if not from being in the direct line of the bullet then from the shock wave of the bullet trajectory. pons Also, generally the back of the skull and neck would be obliterated from the large energy field applied to tissues at the exit site (FYI, most trauma surgeons will tell you that JFK was shot from the front and the large skull wound was the exit site.) In self-inflicted gunshots into the mouth, the cerebellum that controls gait is usually destroyed. The vertebral arteries are usually obliterated also and there is blast effect to the h...
Source: Inside Surgery - Category: Surgeons Authors: Tags: Musings bomber boston next wound suicide suscept Source Type: blogs