[dev_null]

Brazilian policeman's forehead too strong for bullet


A Brazilian policeman has been dubbed 'Steel Forehead' after he survived being shot in the head at close range.

Sergio Moreira Santos, 43, was trying to make an arrest at a power station when he was shot from less than five feet.

The bullet ended up trapped between his skin and his skull but did not damage the bone, reports Jornal da Tarde.

"I saw the trigger being pulled and the gun powder coming out of the gun, you have no idea how that felt," Mr Santos told the newspaper.

Weapons experts say they cannot come up with an explanation as to why the bullet didn't penetrate his forehead.

Roberto Godoy said: "The only likely explanation is that the bullet was smaller than it should have been and homemade, but still I'd say that the best explanation is that he is a very lucky person."


Story filed: 09:42 Tuesday 20th May 2003

www.ananova.com

[R127]

...reminds of Elfego Baca. They say he developed a reputation for being bulletproof after someone tried to shoot him at close range and the hammer fell on an dud. Later he was involved in an incident where he was hiding out in a little shack where he holed up for 36 hours while 80 cowhands fired 4,000 rounds at him. He killed 4 of them, wounded 8, and emerged completely unharmed. They say there was a depression in the floor where he managed to lay below the level of the gunfire. Most fortuitous!

[Ryder]

Sounds more like a guy I met while training for a firefighter job.

He had a perfectly roud scar on his chest. Sure looked like a bullet hole to me. :what: After a while I had to ask him if the scar was from a bullet. "Yup" he said "38 special". Well being the curious sort that I am about wound profiles (I autopsy all my own kills) and not understanding why there were no stitches from surgery to remove the bullet I had to inquire further.

According to him the bullet lodged in his rib bone and was easily removed.

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

I saw a guy get shot in the head with a .32 from a distance of maybe 20 feet years ago; the bullet hit him high in the forehead and traversed his skull under his scalp to the back of his head and remained lodged under the scalp at the occipital protuberance (that lumpy bone on the back of your noggin). When we got him to the ER the doctor made a small incision and removed the bullet and swabbed the wound channel with an iodine swab on a wire, then closed up the exit cut. He never lost consciousness, and there was no fracture of the skull. He did, however, have a tremendous headache for several days.

Of couse, we all thought he was going to be dead before we got him anywhere. Scalp wounds bleed like Niagra Falls. That was one small town bar we never went back to.

Regards,
Rabbit.

[45King]

Sylvilagus Aquaticus wrote:and swabbed the wound channel with an iodine swab on a wire

Dang, I bet that hurt 100 times worse than the gunshot itself!

Over the years I've heard many a story about people receiving wounds from light calibers such as .22, .25, .32, and even occasionaly .38's, with little or no effect. My favorite story was the one of the fellow that was mugged but managed to fight off his attackers. Later that evening, he had a severe headache and went to the ER where they discovered he'd been shot 5 times in the back of the head with a .25ACP. I don't know if that story is true or not, but I wouldn't doubt that it COULD be true.

Does the original story make any mention of what caliber was used?

[STW]

I've a large caliber story. A roommate I once had worked as a Gandy Dancer for the UP. On of his coworkers decided to wack some dynamite with one of those steal breaking bars (what are they, about 2" in diameter). The dynamite was old and unstable (or possibly wrapped up with a railroad flare) and it blew, blowing the breaking bar through the guy's head, front to back. Surgeons were able to remove it with, as my roommate said, no noticable decrease in his co-worker's intelligence.:scrutiny:

This story is not to cast doubt on the large bullet school of thought.:D

[SquirrelNuts]

A friend of mine used to live in Alabama near an area with several free federal ranges. He was at one shooting a 9mm, and we went down range to examine his target. One of the bullets was lodged ever so slightly into the wooden backstop. The bullet had penetrated just enough so that when he touched the bullet it fell out. Every other round went into the backstop. This was no reloaded ammo, it came right out of the factory box.

-SquirrelNuts

[4Truck]

<sarcasm>

Must have been a 9mm, If it was a .45 it would've blown that guys head clean off!!!!!!

</sarcasm>

[Andrew Wyatt]

musta been a .45! if it was a 9mm it would have gone clean through!

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

45King, I thought he was going to levetate off that gurney when the horse doc swabbed him with that iodine.

I have another friend who, as a kid, had a ND that put a .22LR through his thigh; the classic 'flesh wound'. He recalled that the iodine swab was much, much worse than the .22 going clean through.

Regards,
Rabbit.

[voilsb]

ouch. ouch ouch ouch!

I do wonder, though, what caliber the guy in the original story was hit with. maybe a nuke 50?:D

[dodge]

When my dad was still alive he told me of a man he know in WWII that was shot it the tip of his nose and the bullet followed this guys skull around and then came out of the guy's ear lobe. Dad didn't say wheither it was a rifle or pistol bullet but I bet that would give you the mother of all headaches.

[Feanaro]

I'm thinking .22 here. While it's possible for .45ACP and 9mm(not one or the other, both :P) to bounce off or some such thing there are quite a few cases of .22s doing it.

[Keith]

Read the story again. They state that the bullet was "homemade"- a reload.
I don't suppose the average street criminal pays mech attention to reloading data.

[goalie]

As an ex-Paramedic and current ER nurse I have seen a few GSWs. All I will say about the .45 is that one guy shot half his hand off trying to impress his friends with his new toy. Two fingers on ice in a ziplock bag. Both the .45 and .22 will kill you, it just takes the .22 about a week to do it. :what:

[50 Freak]

I used to work with this guy in the LA. He was a Marshall at the courts. He looked normal but you could tell he had some plastic surgury done to one side of his face.

Story was, he was a CHiPer and was effecting a traffic stop. What he didn't know was the guy in the truck he pulled over was a mexican illegal alien, who had just held up a convience store and killed the clerk.

Anyways my friend walked up to the truck and was greeted with a 357 mag in the face. :what:

He was in the hospital for 4 months as he was in a coma, and when he came out, he had a few years of therapy to get the feeling back in his face. Plus he had a ton of plastic surgury to make him look human again. Was the damn nicest guy too.

Guess it just wasn't his time yet.

[DVDTracker]

This is why they teach you to shoot for the ocular-cranial cavity when you do failure-to-stop drills during training. The forehead is very dense bone, and when you hit it an an angle, the rounds can be deflected.

[Neal Bloom]

I am surprised that someone would know about Elfego Baca. Disney had a short series about him long time ago. Great western persona, just never received the press of the other lawmen and gunslingers. Growing up in New Mexico there were many stories of his ability with a gun, his reputation and his luck. Supposedly in the shack they found broom in the corner with many bullet holes in the handle yet he was unscathed. My grandfather and great uncles knew him in his later years. My father told me that even as a very old man he was uncanny with a gun. Always was proud that Elfego was part of the family tree.