Man Shot in Head Drives to Work, Hospital

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GRB

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I did a search, did not see this anywhere else, but cannot believe I was the first to post it. Well here it is:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,180206,00.html

Man Shot in Head Drives to Work, Hospital
Friday, December 30, 2005

PORT ORANGE, Fla. — A man who woke up and found his head bleeding, drove to work and left a note for his boss before going to the hospital to find he had a bullet lodged in his brain, authorities said. His girlfriend later apparently killed herself when contacted by police.

When Glen Thomas Betterley, 53, noticed the blood Thursday morning he asked Emma Lorene Larsen if she had struck him. Larsen, 65, said she didn't know.

He cleaned himself up and laid down to rest, but when the bleeding wouldn't stop he drove to work, left the note and then went to Hallifax Medical Center's emergency room, where he learned he had been shot in the forehead. He was in stable condition Friday.

While Betterley was being treated, police called Larsen and heard a single gunshot. When investigators arrived at the home, they found Larsen dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot to the head. They are calling the case an aggravated battery and apparent suicide. Police won't say what caliber of gun was used.

Betterley's reaction to the bullet in his brain is not that uncommon, a doctor said.

"I've had patients with knives in their heads, screwdrivers in their heads, lawn darts, small-caliber gunshot wounds to the head, where patients have been awake and talking," said Dr. Jonathan Greenberg, a neurosurgeon at Orlando Regional Medical Center. "The question is how important is the area that is damaged?"

As long as a low-caliber bullet doesn't hit any major blood vessels or enters what is called a "non-eloquent" area of the brain — an area that doesn't have a specific, major assigned function — then a person can survive a seemingly serious gunshot to the head.

He said doctors don't even have to remove the bullet from a patient's brain and that it's just a matter of repairing the damaged area.

"It's because you have to weigh the risk of causing damage to the brain in the process of removing the bullet," Greenberg said.
 
Freaky story.

Glad the girlfriend did the right thing in the end.
He said doctors don't even have to remove the bullet from a patient's brain and that it's just a matter of repairing the damaged area.
What about lead poisoning? I know that lead in solid form "isn't well-absorbed," but does that mean it is totally inert and safe to leave in place for years?

Or is it a case of the lesser of two evils? :confused:

pax
 
MY guess is that it would encyst (or become encapsulated in some type of material) by the body and probably would not cause much grief. I just could not imagine whatagood knock to the head might do at a later date. My guess would be if it moved just a bit it could be problematic - but then I am no brain surgeon!

Hopefully he will make a full recovery.

As to the lady involved, I guess she must have shot him, but will we ever know for sure (for instance it could have been her other lover who shot her boyfriend, she was in on it and decided to do herself). Makes me wonder what it was all about. I guess we may find out if this guy plays his cards right and gets some media mogul interested inhis story. He would be the hit of those afternoon talk shows.
 
lucky?

if you were shot in the head would you consider yourself lucky?:D imagine what it would be like going through the airport exray, "yeah i have a bullet in my head" haha
 
What about lead poisoning?
Metallic lead is quite inert. The body will encapsulate it and there will be little if any lead that gets into the system.
 
There is a sad case in NYC now where a soldier on leave ,while drinking, fired a few shots in the air .One bullet struck and killed a woman who had been looking out the window.
 
Glenn Bartley said:
MY guess is that it would encyst (or become encapsulated in some type of material) by the body and probably would not cause much grief. I just could not imagine whatagood knock to the head might do at a later date. My guess would be if it moved just a bit it could be problematic - but then I am no brain surgeon!

I've has stainless steel and titanium rods implanted, then removed. The body has a way of attaching itself to foreign objects (with scar tissue and such) that holds them pretty immobile. (Just ask the surgeon that had to remove my hardware!)

I'd imagine that any bang big enough to dislocate the bullet would also be big enough to give him other things to worry about... If you know what I mean. I'm glad he's okay! Only time will tell what kind of real damage he's going to have.
 
The body will encapsulate it. Since the brain is somewhat spongy, I don't think the bullet will move much. Might be more of a concern if it was close to the spine.
 
I can't understand why so many of these individuals don't shoot themselves before shooting other people.
Absolutely one of the most wonderful sentiments I have read on these forums to date. It reminds me of a button I wore until recently (and I am not one to wear buttons with slogans but I could not resist this particular button). Until it got caught in something and torn off of my jacket I had been wearing a button that said: "Death To Suicide Bombers". Many people agreed it was a great dea because they 'got it' right away. Ia ctually had one guy stop me on the street and ask me: "Isn't that what they want?". I just replied with one word - "preemptive" to whcih he replied something to the effect "oh" probably still not getting it. I digress, let me get back to what I was saying. That is a wonderful sentiment, wouldn't the world be a much better place if those mopes shot themselves first!
 
Glenn Bartley said:
Absolutely one of the most wonderful sentiments I have read on these forums to date. It reminds me of a button I wore until recently (and I am not one to wear buttons with slogans but I could not resist this particular button). Until it got caught in something and torn off of my jacket I had been wearing a button that said: "Death To Suicide Bombers". Many people agreed it was a great dea because they 'got it' right away. Ia ctually had one guy stop me on the street and ask me: "Isn't that what they want?". I just replied with one word - "preemptive" to whcih he replied something to the effect "oh" probably still not getting it.

I can see Asreem The Wise being outfited with a suicide suit by the bomb maker buddy and he says "what does this button do" and pushes it:what: :D .

To the topic at hand there what a news story a few years ago of a barfly waking up in his bed with a spitting headache that would not leave like his usual hangover. He goes to the er of the county hospital complaining of the pain where they x-ray his head...... the doctor looked at the resulting x-ray and found 9, .22 bullets lodged in the man's head :eek: :what: . The patient does not remember when or what happened the night before.
 
There was a Russian soldier in WW2 who had a rifle bullet stuck in his heart. Doctors thought he was dead, then they found he wasn't, so a doc told him to eat a lot of fatty food so his body would encapsulate the bullet. He lived long after the war.
 
Screven County Sheriff Department brought an inmate to MCG Trauma one day. Three days after being arrested, he informed a jailer,"I shot myself the other day before y'all arrested me." He had a large blood clot on his palate. He moved from the stretcher to the CT palate on his own. The physicians were speculating that maybe it was a .22 he used. The CT showed bullet fragments throughout his cranium. The largest fragment was larger than a .22.

The only deficit I noted was a slight dragging of one leg.

I know a couple of others who have been shot in the head. One lady got hit wth a .38 in her forehead. She's effectively totally disabled for she cannot abide lights brighter than a candle. Other guy got in a fight with a police officer who shot him in the face with a .357. Bullet entered beside his nose. Stopped right beside the carotid artery.
 
I engaged ina lengthy footchase one night with a suspect who had recently (within the previous 5 minutes) been shot twice in the back of the head with a 9mm handgun.

He dusted me in a public housing project (got beat by a man who'd been shot!) and made his way to a car where a buddy drove him to the ER.

I got there and was told one round had simply bounced off his skull. The other projectile travelled beneath his skin, along his skull and came to rest above his right eyebrow. The ER doc popped it out like a pimple, literally gave him a tetanus booster and a band-aid and released him to me!

But that's the diffrence between drug dealers and cops. With my luck, a gun could discharge NEAR me and lead or mercury fulminate would enter my system and kill me immediately with some rare allergic reaction! But I can name a drug dealer in my city who has been shot almost as many times as the berm at our range and he's fine!
 
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