View Full Version : What did this?
Despite my being married to the TS, I know next to nothing about bullets...that said.
27 year old male comes in with self inflicted GSW to right chest. He didn't clean the house, sister got mad so to spite her he shot himself...
anyway...entrance is the right pec just lateral and superior to the nipple...about 1 cm in size with blast burns. The exit is mid scapular and about 1.5cm in size. The track is filled with the stuff seen on CT... almost like a shot gun kind of stuff but the entrance/exit isn't consistent.
Will ask the police later when they come by but was curious. Will attach the CXR and a cut off the CT to follow.
doc t.
NousDefionsDoc
04-11-2004, 23:29
Can you tell us what the stuff is like? What color etc?
Eagle5US
04-11-2004, 23:48
safety slug maybe???
Good images Doc, Thx...
Eagle
NousDefionsDoc
04-11-2004, 23:53
With an exit .5 cm larger than the entrance? Could be I guess. Sounds like trash (residue) to me.
Eagle5US
04-12-2004, 00:03
If there are powder burns...
The plastic push plug may have travelled through un-impaired, especially if it came out of something like a Browning high power...
It explains the pellets is all I was thinking...
PA
no color... the pellets or shrapnel just show up as white on the studies...
he is now post op with his right upper lobe in a bucket but doing better as now we can actually oxygenate him.
it was pretty amazing the damage done to his rib cage and upper lobe...the ribs under the small entrance room had a defect of about 6 cm that we had to repair with alloderm to avoid a future lung herniation...likewise the exit which again was larger but not by much. The fragments were tiny...about 1-2mm a piece and silver in color.
family said it was a 222 military rifle....
we will see how he does...lucky to be young.
doc t.
The Reaper
04-12-2004, 06:05
Doc:
5.56x45mm (.223 Remington) Ball ammunition (M855 or M193) will do that if it is moving over 2700 fps and may do it if it is over 2500 fps. As the wound was allegedly self-inflicted, this is likely.
As the projo enters tissue and goes through its first yaw cycle, the stress on the jacket causes it to fracture at the cannelure and break up into many small lead and copper particles each creating its own wound track.
I can provide more technical details if you wish, but the injury and description of the particles is consistent with a close range shot from a 5.56mm FMJ or Ball round.
HTH.
TR
NousDefionsDoc
04-12-2004, 08:28
Right. Trash.
Lucky young man, however he needs training. When I shoot people in the chest with my Mattel gun, they die. On the spot. He should have double tapped himself. Wimp.
Team Sergeant
04-12-2004, 08:47
Winchester 223 50gr. Ballistic Silvertip (or something like them) might account for the silver fragments and the core would have continued through.
My guess would be this and not military ball ammo.
The Reaper
04-12-2004, 10:32
Did the wound pattern look like this?
TR
The Reaper
04-12-2004, 10:36
The bullet would have fragmented like one of these.
The silver particles would be lead from the core.
TR
the cavitation was consistent...no large fragments were found ... only the 1-2mm circular like pieces that were scattered within his chest wall and within the lung...you could feel tiny little balls within the parenchyma.
The part we resected was just one big hemmorrhagic blob.... it was no surprise it was making him so difficult to oxygenate.
doc t.
thanx guys.