Title should say it all, but- per the hospital spokesperson at the press conference, the bullet penetrated her brain (literally in one side and out the other) but he said they were as optimistic as they can be considering the kind of wound (a heavy qualification admittedly).
We don’t know the details of this shooting- what part of the brain it entered or exited or how extensive the damage was- but is it possible for somebody to survive a wound of this nature AND recover enough to live something like a normal life afterwards?
It is all about the extreme details and specific case. There is no way to say. Despite popular opinion, the brain can heal and work around some injuries to an astonishing degree but the only way to know is wait and see. You could end up with anything from a vegetable to a person with a very different personality to someone with selective disabilities. The latter is the most likely there is no way to know right now.
You haven’t asked a clear enough question. You basically answered it by saying, “We don’t know the details of the shooting”
Can you be shot in the head and recover completely? Yes.
Can someone receive a traumatic brain injury and recover, even recover completely? Yes.
Can someone suffer permanent, destructive damage to a chunk of the brain and recover? Yes. If the damage is localized enough, the brain can shift responsibility onto other parts and keep going. But we’re getting into dubious, “million-dollar-wound” territory here.
Can you, say, have a bullet drill a 1" diameter hole through several sectors of the brain and see someone recover completely. Ok, now you’re pushing it. You’ll do secondary damage across big chunks of the brain, and well… recovery just isn’t going to be complete.
There’s Phineas Gage, who had a 1 and 1/2" tamping rod blown completely through his frontal lobe. There are many stories that Gage suffered some pervasive personality changes after the accident, but apparently some of that is now disputed as overstatement.
The report I heard was that Rep. Giffords was shot in the temple, and it went through and through. If this is true, depending on exactly where, and what the angle was, it might not have directly struck her brain. It may have penetrated forward of her brain. Problem there, is that would destroy the optic nerves and possibly her eyes as well. Plus, the shockwave of the bullet, shards of bone, and intrusive particulate matter all put the brain at terrible risk even if the bullet didn’t touch it.
Parts of the temporal lobes govern auditory processing, emotions, visual and spoken semantics, and episodic/declarative memory. While the representative may live, those are skills which are extremely difficult, if not impossible to reroute or recover. She may find herself unable to understand speech, to speak or read in coherent manner, or if the hippocampus is damaged, she may not be able to form new memories.
We know that Gage was able to hold down a couple of jobs after the accident. Given that, he might not have qualified for disability under the modern definitions. His main problem seems to have been impulse and mood/temper control and I know plenty of “normal” people who can’t manage either.
Also, Gage suffered a pretty prolonged battle against infection that modern medicine would have either avoided or shortened greatly. It’s hard to know how much damage was a direct result of the physical trauma and how much was caused by the infection.
James Brady, Reagan administration press secretary, was shot through the the head during the Hinckley assassination attempt in 1981 against Reagan. He lived and was thereafter in a wheelchair and had some speech problems.
James Brady also had some personality changes. In his case, they tended to be of the happy/humorous sort, although he earned a reputation for saying inappropriate for public things at times.
Robert Lawrence a British Army officer lost 43% of his brain and was paralysed down one side of his body. Later he wrote a book about his experiences and began working in the film industry. I believe when I saw a TV program about him he was working with Ken Russell.
May I piggyback on this thread and ask a related question about the surgical techniques that might be employed on a wound such as the one Rep. Giffords suffered? Repairing bone fragments and stopping internal bleeding are two I can guess at, but what do surgeons do to address actual brain tissue that’s had a hole ripped through it from a bullet? How does one even start to repair that kind of damage, hopefully while leaving the affected areas intact enough to retain their basic functions?
I just saw on the news that Rep Giffords is currently awake, and actually able to answer questions, which is NOT something that I would expect to hear about someone who was shot in the head less than 12 hours ago.
I would have to think this must be a huge sign of a good chance at a meaningful recovery.
I think that it’s unlikely that she will survive without at least minor, transient neurological deficits. Whether they are severe enough to impair her ability to function as a politician remains to be seen. Much depends on the kind of bullet, its trajectory, and what structures were damaged.
Just giving a WAG based on the knowledge that the bullet went “temple to temple”, she may have speech difficulties, neglect, hearing problems, and potential motor deficits. She may be worse for wear, but as long as sub cortical structures were undamaged and she hasn’t had a cerebrovascular incident, she should pull through and be able to continue her role as congresswoman.
Well, destroyed brain tissue is removed. They try not to disturb healthy tissue, but “debris” are basically sucked out with a small suction hose. This may sound crude, but neurosurgeons spend years learning how to use such a device with great dexterity.
There isn’t really a way to “fix” damaged brain cells. It’s a matter of removing debris, keeping the pressure in the skull from getting excessive, and combating infection and/or bleeding. The body has to do the repair, healing, and whatever “re-wiring” of brain function that is possible.
Another difficulty in making predictions is that not everyone’s brain is laid out in precisely the same manner. For example, after my mom’s stroke her brain was found to be a mirror-image of what is typical, with what was normally on the left on the right and vice versa (not really a surprise, as she was left handed and this does occur fairly often with lefties). Some people’s language functions are more concentrated and some more dispersed among brain structures. So two people could have the exact same wound but wind up with very different effects from it.
Still, if she’s conscious and responding that IS a good sign. However, she could have a serious setback or complication. At this point there’s just a lot of waiting involved.
from news articles it seems that there are wounds in the left temple area and forehead from the bullet. they removed bone fragments and some damaged brain. she was able to move arms, legs, and to move her fingers when asked to hold up a number after the operation.
she is sedated now and they are watching for swelling and infection. all in all it does sound promising.
Yes, I had read that it went in the temple and out the forehead. The article stated that the doctor was encouraged by the fact that it did not cross hemispheres
This is pretty broadly true. We often don’t actually fix something in medicine, rather we create conditions that favor the bodies healing and restorative functions.
Traumatic brain injury is usually a pretty individual thing, it sounds like she has a pretty good shot at survival, function will take longer to tell.