Woman gets shot, then makes brew

[Captain Seafort]

Source

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A Mississippi woman who was shot in the head not only survived but made herself tea and offered an astonished deputy something to drink, authorities said Friday.

Tammy Sexton, 47, remained hospitalized three days after being wounded by her husband, who killed himself after he shot his wife. She is expected to fully recover.

"There's no way she should be alive other than a miracle from God," said Sheriff Mike Byrd of Jackson County, Miss.

Byrd said deputies were looking for Sexton's husband, Donald Ray Sexton, earlier in the week to give him a document ordering him to stay away from his wife. Court records show he was convicted of domestic violence and put on probation April 9 for six months.

He showed up at their home in rural Jackson County in southeast Mississippi about 12:10 a.m. Tuesday and confronted his wife as a relative ran next door to call police, the sheriff said.

"She was at her bed, and he shot her right in the head," Byrd said. "Then he went out on the back porch and shot himself."

The slug from a .380-caliber handgun struck Tammy Sexton squarely in the forehead, passed through her skull and exited through the back of her head, Byrd said. A deputy arrived within minutes and was greeted by the woman.

"When the officer got there she said, 'What's going on?' She was holding a rag on her head and talking. She was conscious, but she was confused about what had happened," he said. "She had made herself some tea and offered the officer something to drink."

Byrd said the bullet apparently passed through the lobes of the woman's brain without causing major damage. She was rushed to a Mobile hospital by a helicopter.

While such cases may be rare, medical journals confirm people have been shot in the head with little or no lasting injury.

"It's bizarre. You just don't hear of something like this. Somebody gets shot in the head and they're dead," Byrd said.

Weird. The only thing I can think of is that, IIRC, there's a small gap between the lobes of the brain, and the bullet went through that.

Apologies if this is only worth OT.

[Havok]

Wow. At first glance and reading I figured it would have been a grazing shot, but through her forehead and out the back? I wonder what the penetrating characteristics of a .380 are?

[Aratech]

Wow. At first glance and reading I figured it would have been a grazing shot, but through her forehead and out the back? I wonder what the penetrating characteristics of a .380 are?

It's a low power caliber, typically used for self defense. IIRC, it's got about 270 joules of kinetic force behind the bullet, making it even weaker than a standard 9x19mm. Still, taking one to the head at (presumably) point blank range and living through it what what appears to be little more than mild annoyance is certainly the exception, not the rule.

[Raw Shark]

Weird. The only thing I can think of is that, IIRC, there's a small gap between the lobes of the brain, and the bullet went through that.

I read something about this in a print article years ago. It's not so much a gap as tissue that joins and coordinates the left and right hemisphere of the brain, but which does not appear to be entirely essential. People who have had the left and right sides separated in accidents and the effects on their functionality, personalities, etc was the topic. It's hard to find a lot of cases to study because it takes a weird kind of luck or an extraordinary dedication on the part of a volunteer, but if they don't bleed out from the other effects of the head wound there's precedents for a pretty normal life afterward.

[Solauren]

Actually, severing or parting the tissue in the centre of the brain that connects the left and right hemispheres is one of the methods for stopping (spelling is probably wrong here) Grand Maul Seizres (full/total body).

It affects how the sides of the brain relate to each other, and can have minor consequences (i.e some people can't drive afterwards, sense of touch on one side loses sensitivity), but for the most part, properly done, it's completely safe.

[Tanasinn]

That'd be the corpus callosum, if I remember my brain bits correctly.

[Edi]

Don't know if it's am urban legend, but my father told me a story about a man who survived having an iron bar used to shift stones (by leverage) enter through his eye and out the back of his head, with nearly no ill effects. Guy actually walked into the hospital himself, holding the bar still. I'd have to ask him, but I think he actually knew the man, and he has never been one to tell tall tales or exaggerations of such things.

Another one I know is true is that my oldest friend's grandfather got shot in WW2, bullet entered one temple, came out the other, no permanent damage or lasting ill effects.

So such things happen sometimes, though they are exceedingly rare.

[lance]

There was also the case were a guy got shot with a shotgun and loss half his brain. He was impaired, but it seemed like he could do most tasks still.

[Broomstick]

Actually, getting shot or impaled through the brain and surviving is not as unusual as people think it is. There is some redundancy in the brain, some structures are less important than others, and compensation can occur even in adults. The biggest dangers are massive bleeding - miss the major blood vessels you'll avoid that - massive trauma (narrow-bore impalement like arrows and golf clubs avoid pulverizing large volumes of brain tissue, as do some but not all bullet wounds), swelling, and infection.

Sometimes there are significant personality changes not always immediately apparent. One of the better known cases is Phineas Gage, a man whose skull was impaled by an iron tamping rod in the 19th Century. Initially he seemed merely dazed, but he wasn't the same man afterwards even if he did live 12 years past his accident.

[defanatic]

Don't know if it's am urban legend, but my father told me a story about a man who survived having an iron bar used to shift stones (by leverage) enter through his eye and out the back of his head, with nearly no ill effects.

That sounds awfully similar to Phineas Gage, although he suffered a massive personality change.

[Broomstick]

Mr. Gage probably had damage to both his frontal lobes, which almost invariably results in personality changes (and usually not for the better). If the gentleman Edi referred to only had damage on one side it is much more likely he'd suffer minimal personality changes.

[Tanasinn]

Don't know if it's am urban legend, but my father told me a story about a man who survived having an iron bar used to shift stones (by leverage) enter through his eye and out the back of his head, with nearly no ill effects. Guy actually walked into the hospital himself, holding the bar still. I'd have to ask him, but I think he actually knew the man, and he has never been one to tell tall tales or exaggerations of such things.

Phineas Gage? He didn't walk to the hospital on his own and he didn't suffer from no ill effect, but he did suffer the accident you describe, more or less.

Reports surrounding the degree, nature, and duration of his personality changes are subject to variation and speculation, as the wiki article rather conveniently notes.

[Edi]

Not Phineas Gage, as the incident my father referred to occurred here in Finland.

[Melchior]

I read something about this in a print article years ago. It's not so much a gap as tissue that joins and coordinates the left and right hemisphere of the brain, but which does not appear to be entirely essential. People who have had the left and right sides separated in accidents and the effects on their functionality, personalities, etc was the topic. It's hard to find a lot of cases to study because it takes a weird kind of luck or an extraordinary dedication on the part of a volunteer, but if they don't bleed out from the other effects of the head wound there's precedents for a pretty normal life afterward.

A lot of test subjects came out of a rather ill-advised therapy for epilepsy, suffice to say that having a intact corpus callosum turned out to be useful.

[Darth Wong]

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A Mississippi woman who was shot in the head not only survived but made herself tea and offered an astonished deputy something to drink, authorities said Friday.

Tammy Sexton, 47, remained hospitalized three days after being wounded by her husband, who killed himself after he shot his wife. She is expected to fully recover.

"There's no way she should be alive other than a miracle from God," said Sheriff Mike Byrd of Jackson County, Miss.

Just in case you forgot you were reading a story from Mississippi, the guy has to say something incredibly stupid like that. I guess God must have hated the other ~1500 women who are killed by their husbands or boyfriends every year in America, and who he does not intervene to save.

[tim31]

Yeah, I rolled my eyes as soon as I read that too.

Back on the real topic, her survivability is unlikely on so many levels; the fact that a bullet that was travelling 300m/s when it entered her skull didn't critically damage her brain from the shock alone is mind boggling.

[Twoyboy]

Back on the real topic, her survivability is unlikely on so many levels; the fact that a bullet that was travelling 300m/s when it entered her skull didn't critically damage her brain from the shock alone is mind boggling.

Actually, that's exactly what the skull is there for, to absorb the impact by taking the force around the dome shape and along the sides of the skull rather than transferring it to the brain. Obviously some impact is suffered by the brain, but far less than that transferred to the skull.

[Havok]

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A Mississippi woman who was shot in the head not only survived but made herself tea and offered an astonished deputy something to drink, authorities said Friday.

Tammy Sexton, 47, remained hospitalized three days after being wounded by her husband, who killed himself after he shot his wife. She is expected to fully recover.

"There's no way she should be alive other than a miracle from God," said Sheriff Mike Byrd of Jackson County, Miss.

Just in case you forgot you were reading a story from Mississippi, the guy has to say something incredibly stupid like that. I guess God must have hated the other ~1500 women who are killed by their husbands or boyfriends every year in America, and who he does not intervene to save.

No no no. He didn't hate them, it was just their time.

[tim31]

Actually, that's exactly what the skull is there for, to absorb the impact by taking the force around the dome shape and along the sides of the skull rather than transferring it to the brain. Obviously some impact is suffered by the brain, but far less than that transferred to the skull.

I have don't know how much energy the slug would have lost having punched through one side of the skull(not more than half if it managed to exit out the back), but its passage through the brain tissues alone should surely have had concussive effects?

[Broomstick]

Depends on the structure of the ammo, the speed, a bunch of other factors - the medical records are full of images of things stuck in brains of people who nonetheless survived the experience - nails (nailguns are bad for that, apparently), arrows, golf clubs, icepicks, knives, tree branches, bullets, shrapnel, Og knows what else.... there was a case of a volcanologist who was discovered to have rocks in his head, driven there during an eruption - apparently the skull fracture was worse than first thought.

Sure, getting shit lodged in your brain matter is a Bad Thing, but apparently, with modern infection control methods, survival is a lot more likely than it used to be. If whatever it is doesn't turn your entire brain to mush or cause lethal swelling, bleeding and infection appear to be the biggest dangers and we can do something about those these days, even if not every case is successful.

[tim31]

there was a case of a volcanologist who was discovered to have rocks in his head, driven there during an eruption - apparently the skull fracture was worse than first thought.

His name was Stanley Williams, the eruption was Galeras, in Columbia, and more than fifteen years on he refuses to admit he was stupid and got nine people killed by not doing his homework.

If whatever it is doesn't turn your entire brain to mush or cause lethal swelling, bleeding and infection appear to be the biggest dangers and we can do something about those these days, even if not every case is successful.

The first line is what I am on about. What are the odds that a bullet can pass through someone's head at 2-300m/s and not do that? But again, I have no background in ballistics.

[Mayabird]

If whatever it is doesn't turn your entire brain to mush or cause lethal swelling, bleeding and infection appear to be the biggest dangers and we can do something about those these days, even if not every case is successful.

The first line is what I am on about. What are the odds that a bullet can pass through someone's head at 2-300m/s and not do that? But again, I have no background in ballistics.

The way I see it, even if the odds are abysmally small, if enough people get shot in the head, eventually someone will be the outlier that survives. And a lot of people get shot in the head.

I could also make a crack about people in Mississippi not having brains in first place, but that'd be too easy, and I don't have a personal vendetta against that state.

[Punarbhava]

The reason this woman will likely be fine is brain plasticity, and a great book to read on the subject is Phantoms in the Brain by Dr. Ramachandran.

As others said, the brain has a great capacity to reorganize. Not only are new brain cells generated all throughout your life in the hippocampus but in the case of a stroke or injury to some part of it, neighboring brain regions will often take control. This is why, for example, people who're blind from birth often have greater than average sensitivity or skill with one of the other senses. It's also why people with phantom limbs experience feel as if you're touching their missing limb when you touch another part of their body, like their cheek.

[Broomstick]

there was a case of a volcanologist who was discovered to have rocks in his head, driven there during an eruption - apparently the skull fracture was worse than first thought.

His name was Stanley Williams, the eruption was Galeras, in Columbia, and more than fifteen years on he refuses to admit he was stupid and got nine people killed by not doing his homework.

Williams was not responsible for the three tourists that died that day, who went to the mountain of their own accord and over whom Williams has zero authority. Tourists regularly visited the crater, with or without the addition of a local scientific conference. The scientists who went there that day were all lax on safety compared to today's practices. Williams at learned something from the experience and now, apparently now insists on things like hard hats and protective clothing when visiting active calderas, said gear not being standard at the time although in retrospect that seems incredible. The one book I read on the event did have Williams stating a number of things that should have been done differently, but at the time not a single damn one of the experts said jack. It would be one thing if Williams had been leading a bunch of tourists but he wasn't - he was leading a group of supposed world experts in active volcanoes all of whom were being remarkably complacent. One seismographic printout indicated a particular type of tremor now known to presage eruptions at Galeras but that was not so certain in 1993, and that lone piece of paper was just one bit of information amongst many about the volcano, no other of which indicated a rise in activity. NOW people know when those types of tremors occur you should stay off the mountain.

In summary, using the information available at the time there was no reason for any of the six scientists to believe an eruption was as imminent as it was. The party Williams was leading was not a bunch of ignoramuses but leading experts in the field who also should have been able to evaluate the risk. The three tourists were there of their own accord and there was nothing the scientists could do about whether or not they were there. Laying the blame at Williams' feet is a case of blaming the survivor for events he had no control over. At most he had some responsibility for six people being on the mountain, not nine. Those three tourists would have been killed regardless of whether or not Williams and his party had visited the crater that day.

[Shroom Man 777]

In the Black Hawk Down novel where the author compiled the experiences of the various Rangers and Delta operators in the Battle of the Black Sea, one of the Delta operators got shot in the head - through his helmet - but was able to continue fighting and didn't think much of the wound on his forehead. It was later revealed that the round had gone between the lobes of his brain, not doing much damage.