Unbelievable Survivals: 70 Patients Defied All Odds Against Grim Medical Diagnoses
When I was in college, there was a kid that exited a freeway at near freeway speed. Problem was, it was a construction zone at night, no lights, and it wasn’t supposed to be an open exit. Drove right into a pile of rebar. One of the poles went through the car into his face and pinned him to the seat through his head.
A couple of years later, I was in grad school, in anatomy seminar, and the surgeon presented that kids case as a study. Not only did he live, the rebar had slid right past the base of the brain/spinal column. It was so close, they had to twist it out like a screw because the ribbing on the bar threatened nerve damage. They literally rebuilt this kids skull around his brain.
His recovery photo was a totally normal kid smiling. He had a small scar on his chin.
I say kid, but he was like 17, just to be clear.
Edit: everyone keeps bringing up Phineas Gage, but this guy didn’t have any brain damage at all.
Had a lady WALK IN to the hospital with her face pointed at her chest. Her C1 vertebra had somehow fallen off C2, with her spinal cord delicately draped across the odontoid process. No damage to anything. Repaired with slow traction and a halo for a little while. Still baffles my mind 5 years later.
EDIT: lots of questions!
-This little old lady said it happened slowly over time, but when she woke up from her nap that evening, something felt different. No traumatic injury reported.
-She had been side-stepping for almost a year.
-i haven’t had time to draw a diagram yet, but I’ll come back in a little while when i have a chance to doodle one!
EDIT 2:
Behold! My attempt at a diagram of how she looked. I’m afraid it doesn’t make the situation any less scary.
Older woman called 911 for chest pain. Her vital signs were s**t and she had “the look” that anyone who’s ever seen a patient about to die will recognize instantly. Her EKG suggested multiple blockages in her coronary arteries, and we had to put her on a ventilator shortly after she got to the ER because she deteriorated so quickly. Cath lab confirmed the EKG findings: complete blockage of one artery and 99% blockage of two other major arteries. Unfortunately it was too extensive to resolve with PCI, so the only option was to fly her to the university hospital in the city for an emergent triple bypass. It turned out that she’d had multiple episodes like this (but not quite as severe) over the last 6 months and had refused bypass surgery not once, not twice, but *three* times in favor of a Mediterranean diet. Well at this point she didn’t have much say anymore and family agreed, so off to the OR she went. I took care of her again about 4 months later and she actually seemed to have made a remarkable recovery.
For me it was a guy who was cleaning his loaded shotgun and it blew half his face off, jaw and all. He was actually pretty good from the mid nose up. The thing that surprised me is how good of shape he was in afterwards. He didnt even go to the ICU we just admitted him to the med/surg floor. He was up communicating via whiteboard within a few hours and was adamant that he did not try to k**l himself. Got a psych consult anyway but they agreed. Another inch dorsal with the barrel of that gun and he would have been done for.
Both of the stories I’m sharing occurred during the Nepal Earthquake of 2015.
First was an infant who had a roof fall on his head. He was trapped for 10 min. before being rescued and took another 3 hours to drive him to the nearest functioning hospital (this happened in a remote area and he was brought in a taxi). His face was so swollen that it was probably more than double its original size. The top of his head was completely flat (like a dinner plate) and he had raccoon eyes. But somehow he was showing no danger signs and his vitals were normal. A CT scan miraculously showed that there was no brain damage or even an actual fracture, he had something called a Ping- pong fracture. The child recovered pretty well and was discharged in a couple of days.
Second was a lady who was roughly 8 months pregnant. Again, the roof of her house fell on her, sadly on her belly. From what she said, she was stuck under the rubble for about 4 hours, and it took a further 2-3 days to airlift her to the hospital. An x-ray of the pelvis was done which showed that it was broken badly in at least 4 places. But miraculously enough, there was very minimal bleeding. Someone with pelvis fracture can bleed to death easily, and she had multiple fractures in her pelvis. Nobody can say what happened for sure, but it was thought that probably the weight of the rubble was so strong that it actually helped stop the bleeding due to the applied pressure. More miraculously enough, the baby showed no signs of injury or even stress, even though the roof fell straight on her belly, and was delivered healthily via C- section.
