I found a video purporting to show the damage done by krokodil on someone’s head. Since Internet videos are often enough fake or contain false information, I’d like to know if the following video is likely that of the damage caused by the drug krokodil.
ACHTUNG! It doesn’t look good.
When krokodil (ETA: in Russian, крокодил) first began to be much-discussed in Western media (a few years ago), it was (and still is) easy to find on-line photos of damaged arms, hands, and legs of krokodil users. Without even looking at the OP’s link, I can at least tell you that people were all asking the same questions then as you’ve asked now. Especially OP’s question #1:How is that person even still alive???
There are numerous photos on-line of arms and legs with the flesh literally rotting and falling away, in true zombie-style, all the way down to the bare nekkid bones. :eek:
And they’re shooting that shit into their heads now? That’s some desperate krok heads there!
Thread has little point anymore. The video was misidentified as being an example of the damage done by krokodil. It seems to have been caused by flesh-eating bacteria.
Eh, #2 got answered by the fact that the video was misidentified. I think the other questions in your OP are still valid, and haven’t been completely answered. Seems like this thread still has a lot going for it. #1 has become a bit more generic (how can anyone survive that much damage to their head, without necessarily specifying what caused the damage, and what would be the prognosis for someone in that condition), where #3 and #4 are still about Krokodil and haven’t been changed by the revelation that the video isn’t what it was advertised to be.
.
Can someone survive that level of damage to their heads?
Sure - short term at least. She isn’t bleeding out. Her brain is intact enough to keep her body functioning and she upright and conscious.
Back when I worked with medical researchers I saw a number of images of people with horrific damage who were alive, many of whom later made a recovery of sorts and went on to live their lives. One was someone pulled from the fire/crowd crush of the The Station fire in Rhode Island. The side of her head was severely burned, down to and through her skull, exposing some of her brain. She survived, underwent surgery and rehab, and I presume is still up and walking about and living her life.
The big problem, of course, is infection in raw tissue uncovered by skin. As long as that can be managed the person can continue to live. As to whether or not what is shown in that link is survivable, I don’t know. A lot depends on what sort of circulation remains in the living tissue at the margins as to whether or not some sort of skin graft could be done to cover the exposed eye socket, check bone, and jaw bones. That’s the sort of damage face transplants are intended to help with, although in this case it would be a half a face transplant. The fact there are people who have undergone facial transplants, including transplant of underlying facial bones, lets you know this is not an entirely unique case.
This sort of head injury depicted in the link in the OP is particularly horrifying because it erases half of the person’s face, which is pretty damn disturbing to look at. Really, folks, don’t click on that without considering you’ll be looking at someone with exposed facial and skull bones.