Posted on 06/15/2008 9:50:10 PM PDT by Coffee200am
A British soldier told yesterday how he survived after a Taliban sniper’s bullet passed through his brain.
Sergeant Alistair McKinney of the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment said the bullet entered his head above his left eye, went through his brain and exited his skull above his right ear.
Sgt McKinney, 36, was hit by sniper fire from hills as he patrolled the perimeter fence of his base at Musa Qala, Afghanistan in August 2005.
He has no recollection of the shooting. He said: “The bullet smashed my forehead just above the left eye, went through part of my brain then shot out the side of my head above the right ear.
“I was out for weeks. I just couldn’t believe I survived when the medics described exactly where the round had passed.”
After emergency treatment in Pakistan, Sgt McKinney was flown back to Britain for extensive neurosurgery at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth hospital.
A source at the hospital said: “An injury like this would prove fatal 99.9 times out of 100.”
He clung to life in hospital and even overcame other complications including an MRSA-like infection, tuberculosis and a large cerebral abscess.
Sgt McKinney, who has been left blind in the left side of both eyes, has now left hospital but is receiving treatment at the armed services rehabilitation centre at Headley Court in Surrey.
He told The Sun: “I can’t complain because I’ve got no right to be alive really. I’m wheelchair bound at the moment but I’m getting up on my feet more and more. I can slowly feel the paralysis down my left side easing.
“It’s frustrating sometimes that things take time to heal. But I’m determined to be out of this chair. The doctors told me I shouldn’t really still be here. They’ve told me I’m a miracle case - so anything is possible.”
His mother Josie, 57, cares for him him with his father George, 55, at the family home in Market Drayton, Shropshire. Mrs McKinney said: “We never thought he’d pull through but he’s a fighter and he’s fighting all the way. We’re so proud of him.”
I remember this story on FR in 2005.
I wish to see a CAT scan with coronal and saggital reconstruction to beleive this.
No doubt, he was placed on the left side of the rehab center. ;-)
Prayers for this brave soldier.
Nothing short of an absolute miracle.
He's all right, now.
Hope this soldier is improving every day.
i thought this snippet was interesting. i remember it from psychology 101.
The "guy's" name was Phineas Gage, and he/was by far the most famous case demonstrating the alteration of "personality" via brain injury.
As the story goes, Phineas was an amicable railroad worker fastidious in his duties and in-line for job success. One day he was working on the line setting a charge for a tamping iron. The charge went off prematurely and the tamping iron was thrust upward through Phineas's palate and exited out of his left frontal skull region.
Amazingly, he recovered from this massive open head wound, but somethings had changed. Over a course of time (not sure about the details here), Phineas's attitude or "personality" if you like, changed from his old personable self to an impulsive, crude mouthed, inattentive SOB.
Needless to say, he didn't keep his job for long, and he was relagated to poverty, drunkardness, and societal disgrace.
Phineas's injuries clearly demonstrate something termed, "frontal disinhibition." A term that encompases the dysfunction apparent in individuals with frontal lobe injuries (e.g., attention and concentration px., orienting response px., apparent lack of societal inhibition, planning difficulties, etc.).
The article Bill refers to above was written by the Damasios, and involved the MRI recostruction of Phineas's skull (which, I believe is housed at Harvard Med. School Library). By extrapolating the injury site, the Damasios were better able to pin-point the brain injury Phineas suffered. I believe the main point of injury was the left orbitofrontal region, the "seat of volitional control" or as my advisor coins, "the place where the little man drives the bus." J.Browndyke
Jeffrey N. Browndyke
Ph.D. Student in Medical/Clinical Psychology
Louisiana State University
Email: cogito at premier.net
Department of Psychology
I find this fascinating and difficult to understand how that could happen.
God bless him.
Prayers for his continued recovery.
You have to remember that NATO type rounds do not expand like a hunting type bullet does. It is possible for a bullet of that type to pass through soft tissue like a brain without doing much damage at all. His skull probably took much of the shock out of the bullet, and slowed it down significantly.
And that's why it's always better to be lucky than good...
Understood. I have a ballistics chart on a side door of the CT suite I work in. With tangential reconstructions of the accumulated data one can correlate the actual path and figure in to the equation the shock effect to the surrounding tissue of the projectile. You then toss the data into a 3D generator so the neurosurgeons can see before they chop. Knowing what I do, semi-jacketed Federal Hydra-Shok magnum loads is what I would recommend for household uninvited critters. It helps to work midnites in a Level One Trauma Center in Detroit to glean info.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.