UAB Doctor is NY Times story about devastating wounds from assault rifles.

Dr. Jeffrey Kerby, the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

He was formerly an Air Force surgeon.

Dr. Jeffrey KerbyCreditBob Miller for The New York Times

Dr. Kerby will never forget the first victim of a high velocity bullet wound he treated when he was serving in the Southern Philippines 16 years ago. The soldier had been shot in the outer thigh. His first thought was that the wound did not look so bad. There was just a tiny hole where the bullet went in. Then he looked where the bullet had exited. The man’s inner thigh, he said, “was completely blown out.”

Later he came to expect the telltale pattern. “You will typically see a small penetrating wound. Then you roll the patient over and you see a huge exit wound.”

The high energy bullet creates a blast wave around the bullet. And the yaw can contribute to the larger exit wound. Striking bone can also cause bone fragments that radiate outward, cutting tissue in each fragment’s path.

“Then the bullet starts tumbling, causing more and more destruction.” Even a bullet that misses bone can result in surprising damage; as the blast wave travels through the body, it pushes tissues and organs aside in a temporary cavity larger than the bullet itself. They bounce back once the bullet passes. Organs are damaged, blood vessels rip and many victims bleed to death before they reach a hospital. Those who survive long enough are whisked to operating rooms, but often the injuries cannot be repaired.

“If they are shot in the torso, there often is not a whole lot we can do,” he said.

With a handgun, the bullets mostly damage tissues and organs in their direct path. Eventually, the bullets may be slowed and stopped by the body. Emergency surgery often can save handgun victims.

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Dr. Kerby said it used to be that surgeons like him saw victims of assault rifle shootings only in the military. No more. Now, though the wounds are still rare on the streets of Birmingham, he operates on occasional victims — that is, those who survive long enough to reach the hospital.

“These weapons are meant to kill people,” he said.

Read the complete article HERE.