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Edited on Sun Jan-09-11 07:52 AM by PCIntern
the language used by the medical professionals in last night's presser was most disheartening. I myself have used such verbiage to cast the best light, for the time being, on a very bad situation. The surgeons and physicians were carefully parsing their words and were in effect saying, IMO: She's alive...she has sustained a terrible brain injury...she may recover from her wounds physically...from a brain standpoint it has yet to be determined exactly how much function she has lost...do not raise your expectations in terms of cognitive or physical function...more surgery may be necessary (that is usually really bad news).
Suffice it to say that this woman will most likely never be the same...a transverse bullet wound would have to pass through the frontal lobe for severe neurological wounding NOT to occur IMO. Someone stated that it was a back-to-front transversal which is normally very bad, and it pained me to see the faces of the doctors trying to be, in one sense upbeat, but the sadness in the eyes when describing her condition was almost unmistakable. I really really hope I'm wrong about this, but I have treated many people with much less severe brain injury whose faculties are severely impaired.
I have had to tell people that they have cancerous lesions of the posterior aspect of the tongue and/or the floor of the mouth. These lesions are VERY serious and often/usually fatal. My whole persona changes from when, say, I have to tell someone to go for a biopsy on what seems like it is probably nothing remarkable, but somewhat suspicious. It's a whole different attitude one takes...one can't help it. One lady, a very very heavy smoker and drinker looked into my eyes when I saw a nickel-sized lesion in the floor of her mouth under the lateral border of her tongue, and said to me, "I'm going to die, aren't I?" I attempted to recover, but realized that my whole visage had fallen despite my attempts to remain impassive. I saw that in their faces yesterday. Perhaps it was because of the mass of death around them...I hope so for her sake.
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