[AGreatPer]

Wow, the doctors have left the bullet in him. They said "This will cause complications for matching ghe bullet". No Sh@@.

What on earth would cause a bullet to be left in the patient? I don't understand.

[Henk]

Perhaps too close to spinal cord to retrieve at this time.

[aeronca]

"What on earth would cause a bullet to be left in the patient? I don't understand.

Location, the main thing is to get in, correct the worst of the tissue/organ damage, then stablize patient. Meds, BP, heart rate all have to be considered. If the patient had blood loss, they will not want to linger in O.R. untill they can get him out of immediate danger and stabilized.

Have a daughter that was cut from the front passenger side of vehicle that rolled over 8 times. They do what they can do--then stabilize. Her bone fractures and cuts/abrasions were not the priority. Keeping her alive was.

[miffmole]

It's funny, but from what I have heard from the other shooting when the victim has survived, they often leave bullets in victims, but in one of the shootings(The 13 year old I believe-the bullet that hit the women who survived passed thru her I seem to recall) they made a special effort to get a fragment. I had a thought though, when he hopefully is feeling better in a day or two, why not do a MRI?

[ApesForEvolution]

To close to spinal cord? Dunno.

[patriciaruth]

What on earth would cause a bullet to be left in the patient? I don't understand.

Happens a lot that retreiving a bullet that is no longer causing damage would involve risking damage to the patient by the surgeon or unnecessarily prolong the time under anesthesia. For patients recently suffering trauma, the danger of shock is great. Better to hustle them to ICU after life threatening damage is repaired, and evaluate there what value further surgery would have.

Bullet probably shows up on Xray and can be tentatively identified as similiar to the ones the murderer is using. I heard they were a bit more slender than "regular" bullets.