It has always amazed me how Gabrielle Giffords survived being shot in the head, sometimes people do survive being shot in the head but it is usually with low caliber ammo like 22lr, she was shot with a 9mm. I know that part of the reason was that they stopped her from choking on her blood and tried to stop the flow of blood from her entrance wound, but there is more to it then that. People can survive without their frontal lobes, but need other areas of the brain to survive. Does anyone know where in the head she was shot (back of the head, side, forehead, at a angle sideways) and where the bullet exited (if it did exit)? If the bullet did not exit, there is a higher change of survival as the exit wound is always bigger then the entrance wound and provides more areas for blood to escape. It would also be interesting to know if the shooter used hollow points or regular FMJ ball rounds, as hollow points are more lethal.
That is very strange indeed. People almost never survive gunshots to the back of the head as that part of the brain controls breathing, heart rate ect
Also if the bullet did exit above her left eye how come she doesn’t have a gnarly scar or exit wound there. When Reeva Steenkamp crime scene photo’s were shown in court there was a large exit wound with portions of her brain protruding, and she was also shot with a 9mm.
The brain is a large and complex structure. The areas that regulate autonomic functions are normally towards the back, yes. But they are more towards the base of the skull. Higher up are other areas, like the occipital and parietal lobes. Googling it looks like people have wild speculations (lots of “ifs”) with little hard information. Speculation suggests frontal, parietal, and maybe occipital damage.
It is impossible to predict outcome based upon the caliber; it only makes certain outcomes more likely. People can die from a single .22 shot or survive multiple large centerfire rounds. A lot of her prognosis is explained by the fact that she maybe got good medical care.
This says she was hit in the forehead and they were initially incorrect that she was shot from behind.
No it doesn’t. Those functions are controlled by the brain stem, which is at the base of the brain, where it connects to the spinal cord. The “back of the brain” is the visual cortex, and the cerebellum (which is not very well understood, but seems to be involved in coordination of movement). Damage to the visual cortex will make you partially or fully blind, and damage to the cerebellum will cause your limb movements to be poorly coordinated, but people can certainly survive damage to either area.
Anyway, it is not that unusual to survive a bullet in the brain, provided it goes through fairly cleanly. Phineas Gage famously survived having a large iron rod shot right through his brain.
The video in this article Newly released Jared Lee Loughner files reveal chilling details - CBS News says she was conscious and apparently able to respond to a command to squeeze her hand at the scene of the shooting. I understand why she survived, due to the removal of part of her skull to prevent brain swelling and preventing her from choking on her blood, but it seems odd and somewhat unbelievable that she was conscious immediately after taking a 9mm to the head. A strong punch would knock someone unconscious and obviously a bullet drilling itself through your brain has more power then that, not to mention the hydrostatic shock that would jar your brain quite a bit. Is it possible she was conscious or do you think he was embellishing the story a bit?
A single punch rarely knocks anyone unconscious. A concussion may lead to unconsciousness, or the brain knocking into the inside of the skull, but that’s actually less likely with a bullet, which has its force concentrated in a small area and moves so quickly that it doesn’t cause the brain as a whole to move, just the, uh, contents of the hole to move. It cuts more than it pushes.
Yes, I find it very believable that she was alert enough to squeeze a hand. I’d also find it very believable that she wasn’t, and that the “squeeze” was a reflex spasm misinterpreted as deliberate movement. When it comes to head wounds, literally almost anything is possible.
USAtoday has a simple diagram.
The left posterior damage initially took away much of her ability to speak. She’s recovered limited ability after two years of speech therapy.
She’s very fortunate the left parietal was spared. She seems to fully comprehend and understand speech. She just can’t express her thoughts very well anymore.
It must be very frustrating for her to live with. She was so articulate before the shooting. Those thoughts are still there, she just can’t express them like she used to. It’s still a remarkable recovery considering how close she was to dying.
Wouldn’t the hydrostatic shock, and the stretch cavity from the bullet wound be enough to knock her unconscious? If you look at bullets fired into FBI grade ballistic gelatin designed to simulate human tissue, in slow motion the bullet causes both permanent stretch cavities, and often large temporary stretch cavities, and often moves the block of gelatin itself several inches, wouldn’t this be enough to make it bounce off the skull causing a concussion? Example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY4tvV0Cq6I also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HISnKBpnLOM There is also significant force from the impact of the bullet hitting its target, enough that people shot with bullet proof vests on, even though they survive, often have broken ribs and significant blunt trauma to the area.
Did you look at my link?
Of course, Gage was hit in a quite different part of the brain from Giffords, but harder, and by a considerably larger object.
The fact is, responses to brain trauma vary hugely, from almost instant death, to, like Gage, being able to walk and talk again almost immediately, and the differences depend on a whole lot of, often imponderable, factors. If witnesses say Giffords was conscious and responsive after the shooting, I see no reason to disbelieve them.
I’m not a trauma expert. But from what I know of hydrostatic shock, it’s what happens when a person is hit somewhere in the body and fluids move out in a shock wave, gaining energy with each wave. The more distance, the greater the movement, like ripples from a pebble gaining height further out from the point of penetration than at the point of penetration. I think. So as far as hydrostatic shock is considered, you’re more likely to suffer brain trauma from a shot to the chest than a direct shot to the head. Of course, the direct brain trauma is present from the path of the bullet, but I don’t know if hydrostatic shock plays a role. Clearly in this case, it didn’t play a fatal role, although it may have played an incapacitating one.
Certainly people have walked themselves into the ER missing large pieces of their brain. Brains are weird. Sometimes a small injury does great damage, but a great injury doesn’t always to great damage.
Too simple. Yes those broad lobes have these functions, along with hundreds of others. But the points where the lines are pointing too are quite far from the actual speech area. I haven’t been following her recovery and can’t speculate on what symptoms she has. Her orbit was damaged so that path seems too high. Notably though, the leftmost point is too frontal and the rightmost is too high. The motor cortex controls all parts of the body and it depends on where that is hit, and it could be avoided completely if the damage was less superficial (deeper in the brain).
Nitpick but damage to the “speech area” (Broca’s area) also impairs comprehension, but only in very specific situations, and they can understand pretty well. Also the right hemisphere affects speech just not in the same ways. Broca’s aphasia is frustrating to the patients while Wernicke’s impairs them greater but they are more ignorant of their impairment. I like to ask students when teaching the physiology of speech which type of aphasia they’d want (among those two and a few others). One of those questions where there is no wrong answer as long as they explain well.
Yes I read your link, did you watch the youtube video’s? You can see the gelatin block bounce around after it is shot, wouldn’t this cause it to hit the sides of the skull causing a concussion and at least temporary loss of consciousness? About the hydrostatic shock, their is fluid in the skull, wouldn’t a bullet passing through the brain result in hydrostatic shock? Is there any evidence Gabriel was actually conscious and talking or just squeezing the guys hand? There is this video http://www.military.com/video/specialties-and-personnel/snipers/syrian-sniper-shot-in-the-head/2178901063001/of a guy getting nicked on the very top of the head by a sniper, he looses consciousness instantly, even though he keeps breathing, but does appear to convulse slightly afterwards, squeezing his rifle. I also wonder if there are any major arteries in the head, as Phineas Gage survived and did not bleed to death, but budd dwyer shot himself and had the bullet exit almost the same spot on the top of the head as Gage, but had massive blood loss through the nose and died. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cd0_1296909173
I know my response contained a lot of info, but can someone take a shot at answering at least part of it?