Doctor Tells of a 19-Gunshot-Wound Survivor

[45ACPShooter]

Doctor Tells of a 19-Gunshot-Wound Survivor
By MICHAEL WILSON
It has been one of the more lingering questions surrounding the shooting of Sean Bell: How can anyone sustain 19 gunshot wounds and live to tell about it?
The day after Joseph Guzman had his thorny day in court in the trial of three detectives charged in Mr. Bell’s death, he became the center of attention during the testimony of the surgeon who kept him alive on Nov. 25, 2006.
The surgeon, Dr. Albert Cooper, was attending in the trauma unit of Mary Immaculate Hospital that morning when the call came in announcing two patients with multiple gunshot wounds were en route.
Dr. Cooper, the medical team and hospital staff members convened in the trauma bay and waited, with little idea of what had just transpired. Mr. Bell, Mr. Guzman and Trent Benefield had just left Mr. Bell’s bachelor party at Club Kalua in Jamaica, Queens, when officers investigating the club, believing the men were armed, followed them. In the confrontation that followed, five officers opened fire with 50 shots, killing Mr. Bell and wounding Mr. Benefield and Mr. Guzman.
Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard F. Isnora face charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter and first-degree assault. Detective Marc Cooper faces two misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment. All three are on trial before Justice Arthur J. Cooperman, who is hearing the case in State Supreme Court in Queens without a jury.
Dr. Cooper was the prosecutor’s last and, coincidentally, 50th witness in the so-called “50-shot case.” He was called to establish the nature of the injuries upon which the assault charges are based. Prosecutors rested their case on Wednesday, and the defense is expected to call its first witness, Officer Michael Carey, who fired three shots and was not charged, on Thursday.
Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield were rushed by ambulance to Mary Immaculate, and a quick look told Dr. Cooper the priorities of the situation, he said. Mr. Benefield had been shot in the calves and in one buttock and was crying out in pain, but Mr. Guzman was in a much more dire condition.
“He was telling me in somewhat of a mumbling voice that he should live and I should help him to live,” Dr. Cooper testified on Wednesday about Mr. Guzman, who has been described by some as a medical marvel for being able to walk again.
“He appeared to be confused and somewhat combative,” Dr. Cooper added, “which was indicative he was probably in severe pain.”
The doctors stabilized him with an air tube for his breathing, and began a head-to-toe inspection of Mr. Guzman’s body, finding 19 bullet holes, including several in his legs, his abdomen, at least one in his chest and one at his cheek bone in his face, which appeared superficial, a glancing shot.
“My clinical suspicion is he had some lung trauma,” Dr. Cooper said. “We immediately placed a chest tube which yielded blood, a lot of blood.”
Then, more stressful signs: a catheter also yielded blood, suggesting internal injuries to his bladder or urinary system.
“His blood pressure’s stable, his airway’s stable, so I think I have a little time to do further investigation,” Dr. Cooper said.
CAT scans and X-rays on Mr. Guzman showed bullets and bullet damage near a kidney and spillage from holes shot through his intestines.
“We made sure blood was available” and gave Mr. Guzman a tetanus shot, Dr. Cooper testified. Then, he began to operate with an incision to the patient’s belly. “Upon entering his abdominal cavity, we noted blood in his abdominal cavity,” the doctor continued.
Doctors packed dressing in all four corners of the cavity, then pulled it away, looking for blood and spillage from his digestive tract. Dr. Cooper found both intestinal content and fecal matter from Mr. Guzman’s colon in the cavity, potentially lethal.
“It has very dangerous bacteria,” Dr. Cooper said, adding that it could have led to a deadly infection.
The team quickly stapled the holes to the intestines and colon, removing one piece that was “shredded,” he said. They sealed up the cavity and sent Mr. Guzman to the intensive care unit, he said.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ound-survivor/



Dr. Albert Cooper’s sketch of Joseph Guzman’s torso showing seven dots where bullets were found inside his body.



A sketch of the bullet holes discovered on Mr. Guzman’s body.



CAT scan and X-ray images of Mr. Guzman. The three X-rays from his torso, at far left, show tiny white specks, which are bullets.

[Skans]

I didn't find any mention of caliber?

[mete]

NYPD uses 9mm but I don't remember what bullet.Originally they used ball.

[cubesmoothie]

Could have been a .45 and its still survivable. In as much as, i didnt read anything that said his heart or spine or brain was hit, or the major arteries right above the heart.

[Ben Towe]

Still a miracle he didn't die from shock.

[Glenn Dee]

147gr JHP 9MM

[Double Naught Spy]

I count 5 six hits to the pelvis area on Guzman, but not one mention is made of a broken or shattered pelvis.

Interesting how the drawing of the back side of the shootee has the left side mislabeled as right.

The the amount of lower body and leg shots, flinching seems like it might need to be an issue addressed in future training.

[troy_mclure]

Had a car bomb driver in iraq survive 19 thru and thru's. My squad was firing our m4's at the cars engine compartment to stop it, the guy was just collateral damage.

Not 1 bullet had truck bone or a vital organ, there wasn't even much blood.

He got out of the car and tried to run away.

We took him to the detainee drop off point(after we blew the car), but they ended up releasing him, and we saw him walking out on the street a few weeks later.

[Composer_1777]

He table below shows common performance parameters for several 9x19mm loads. Bullet weights from 115 to 147 grains are common. Loads are available with energies from just over 320 (ft•lbf) to over 472 (ft•lbf), and penetration depths from 8 inches to over 24 inches are available for various applications and risk assessments. The Marshall and Sanow "one-shot stop" rating varies from 63% for the non-expanding FMJ which produces a ballistic pressure wave of 266 psi to over 90% for the Cor-Bon 115 grain JHP which produces a ballistic pressure wave of 626 psi. The average incapacitation times (estimated for a 170 lb male shot in the center of the chest) vary from 7.3 to 13.5 seconds.


Manufacturer ///Load///Mass (grains)///Velocity (ft/s)///Energy (ft•lbf)///Expansion (inches)[20]///Penetration (inches)[20]///BPW[21](psi)///PC[20] (in3)///TSC[20] (in3)///OSS[20]///AIT[21] (sec)


Cor-Bon JHP 115 1350 465 0.55 14.2 626 3.4 38.5 90.6% 8.8

Double Tap Gold Dot JHP 124 1310 472 0.70 13.25 681 5.1 37.6 (est) 85.3%[22] 8.4

Federal HydraShok JHP +P+ 124 1220 410 0.67 13.4 584 4.7 44.8 85.7% 9.1

Remington Golden Saber JHP 147 990 320 0.62 14.5 421 4.4 33.2 74.5%[22] 10.7

Winchester Silvertip 115 1225 383 0.72 8.0 915 3.3 16.7 82.9% 7.3

Winchester WWB JHP 147 990 320 0.58 15.9 384 4.2 19.6 74.1% 11.2

Winchester FMJ 115 1155 341 0.36 24.5 266 2.5 10.6 62.9% 13.5

[biohazurd]

Now thats one lucky guy, 50 cent aint got nothing on him. Lol

[simonkenton]

Lucky guy, and some damned good, and quick medical care.

[TenRing]

Wow!

[Snarlbuckle]

I didn't notice a single hit to a vital organ at all. What surprises me is that not a single officer out of 5 could hit a single vital organ even when they dumped their magazines.

Just goes to show the importance of training and regular practice.

[ATW525]

I didn't notice a single hit to a vital organ at all. What surprises me is that not a single officer out of 5 could hit a single vital organ even when they dumped their magazines.

Only one officer out of five dumped his magazine (and reloaded and dumped a second). All three people hit were inside a vehicle at the time of the shooting which likely at least partially obscured most of their vital organs.

[brickeyee]

It would appear that at least some of the holes are through and through shots from the locations on the chest and back.

Not many in the center of the chest either.

Small blood vessels bleed smaller amounts of blood.

[firespectrum]

It's funny how someone will drop dead after getting hit with a 22 and then some people can get swiss-cheesed and survive. Luck goes both ways.

[B.N.Real]

The doctor is mistaken and I would guess he's not a handgun fan ( i.e. he lied on purpose).

The holes in front and back line up.

They are shoot through holes.

You can cut the number of times this guy was shot by half and he was'nt hit directly in the face or the chest in a vitals area.

Bad shooting with ball rounds.

And,he was very lucky.

Some people die from a single shot from a 22 a hundred yards away.

And I'll say this until I die of old age.

When a policeman tells you to "STOP! and put your hands where I can see them!"-YOU DO THAT.

You DO NOT run your mouth.

You DO NOT dig for the door handle.

You DO NOT DO THINGS THAT COULD MAKE THE POLICE OFFICER THINK YOU ARE ABOUT TO SHOOT HIM OR HER.

I'm an old white guy and I put my hands up ( or at least wait for instructions with hands out where they can see them- if that's what needs to be done to put a police officer at ease.

[Composer_1777]

The doctor is mistaken and I would guess he's not a handgun fan ( i.e. he lied on purpose).

No1 considers the fact doctors lie, but you are right. Doctors lie and cheat and we all are in awe because someone has "DR" in their name. We need to start questioning doctors, teachers, judges, everyone. Thank you for the post.

[spotter123654]

wow lucky, i agree with composer

[Osageshooter]

As a surgeon I have taken care of quite a few GSW injuries. My personal record is 7 rounds with a 380. That patient was injured more seriously than this one. "Shoot through holes" are often not what they appear to be. It is very difficult to determine. I have seen entrance wounds to the chest that exited at the back and the bullet actually tunneled around the ribs and never hit a vital organ. With pistol bullets, in my experience, "shoot through" often does not occur. Dividing the number of hole in this case to get the "real" number would very likely not be accurate. I don't see much motivation for a surgeon to lie about this, but mistaking the number of entrance wounds by one or two might be possible.

[Double Naught Spy]

The doctor is mistaken and I would guess he's not a handgun fan ( i.e. he lied on purpose).

The holes in front and back line up.

They are shoot through holes.

You can cut the number of times this guy was shot by half and he was'nt hit directly in the face or the chest in a vitals area.

Dividing the number of hole in this case to get the "real" number would very likely not be accurate. I don't see much motivation for a surgeon to lie about this, but mistaking the number of entrance wounds by one or two might be possible.

Right, there are 10 shots on the front from the knees up, but only 5 shots on the back. Obviously, the shots don't line up if there is a different number of shots on the front and back and so you can't just divide by 2. As noted, it would be quite unusual to have all the shots overpenetration with handgun ammo.

[IDAHO83501]

If this is a true story, the person hit 19 times and is still alive must have been shot by with a 9mm, or a BB gun. I am sure there are alot of "9" defenders trying to find some bullet or powder reason for this. After all those "9" guys are always coming up with excuses for that round. Again if this is true, then it shows once again that to knock down and kill, the 9 falls short compared to the .40, 10mm, and .45 not mention bigger rounds. Nut up, learn to handle a little recoil, and practice shooting something that with hits in the teens in this case "19" will leave a Swiss Cheese, not a survivor.

[pax]

Look, if you want to have a caliber war thread, go do it down in one of the Handgun forums. Not here.

pax

[Rampant_Colt]

Originally Posted by Composer_1777

The table below shows common performance parameters for several 9x19mm loads. Bullet weights from 115 to 147 grains are common. Loads are available with energies from just over 320 (ft•lbf) to over 472 (ft•lbf), and penetration depths from 8 inches to over 24 inches are available for various applications and risk assessments. The Marshall and Sanow "one-shot stop" rating varies from 63% for the non-expanding FMJ which produces a ballistic pressure wave of 266 psi to over 90% for the Cor-Bon 115 grain JHP which produces a ballistic pressure wave of 626 psi. The average incapacitation times (estimated for a 170 lb male shot in the center of the chest) vary from 7.3 to 13.5 seconds.


Manufacturer ///Load///Mass (grains)///Velocity (ft/s)///Energy (ft•lbf)///Expansion (inches)[20]///Penetration (inches)[20]///BPW[21](psi)///PC[20] (in3)///TSC[20] (in3)///OSS[20]///AIT[21] (sec)


Cor-Bon JHP 115 1350 465 0.55 14.2 626 3.4 38.5 90.6% 8.8

Double Tap Gold Dot JHP 124 1310 472 0.70 13.25 681 5.1 37.6 (est) 85.3%[22] 8.4

Federal HydraShok JHP +P+ 124 1220 410 0.67 13.4 584 4.7 44.8 85.7% 9.1

Remington Golden Saber JHP 147 990 320 0.62 14.5 421 4.4 33.2 74.5%[22] 10.7

Winchester Silvertip 115 1225 383 0.72 8.0 915 3.3 16.7 82.9% 7.3

Winchester WWB JHP 147 990 320 0.58 15.9 384 4.2 19.6 74.1% 11.2

Winchester FMJ 115 1155 341 0.36 24.5 266 2.5 10.6 62.9% 13.5

...and Evan Marshall and Ed Sanow are still full of crap :barf:

Lest anybody actually believe this rubbish posted above.


There are plenty of accounts of old-west shootouts with guys getting hit multiple times with .44/40 and .45 Colt and still surviving.

One shooting is anecdotal

Please read this for factual information:
http://ammo.ar15.com/project/Self_De..._FAQ/index.htm

[Mr. Davis]

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we shoot center mass.