AC; MD's are faced with extrapolation from existing data all the time, and have to handle situations and conditions they have never seen before. Just because I didn't see something, doesn't mean I wasn't ready for it, or didn't have an idea what to expect. As an example, I studied an entity called pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism. Very unusual disease. I asked a friend/colleague of mine, who is an endocrinologist (who would be the one do diagnose and treat such a condition), if she had ever seen a case. She said no, but she thought there had been one in the teaching files at the hospital where she was a resident.
Same thing with frangibles. The kids who were shot with bird shot didn't die. People have even survived near point blank 12 ga. shotgun wounds with 00 buck.
Here is what we are trying to accomplish. We want the person who is attacking us to become incapacitated quickly. Frangibles do this by causing lots of little bleeders. WOW!! That is terrific!! The guy might die in a day or two!
Most people have no idea how long it takes for a person to bleed out to the point where they become incapacitated. Here are some data from the FTI site:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Newgard, Ken, M.D.: "The Physiological Effects of Handgun Bullets: The Mechanisms of Wounding and Incapacitation." Wound Ballistics Review, 1(3): 12-17; 1992.
This article examines the physiological mechanisms of the human body to provide a medical answer to the question: How many times is it necessary to shoot an assailant before he is incapacitated?
Newgard reviews the physiological mechanisms of gunshot wound trauma incapacitation:
"The only method of reliably stopping a human with a handgun is to decrease the functioning capability of the central nervous system (CNS) and specifically, the brain and cervical spinal cord. There are two ways to accomplish this goal: 1) direct trauma to the CNS tissue resulting in tissue destruction and 2) lack of oxygen to the brain caused by bleeding and loss of blood pressure."
Newgard discusses the body's blood loss sensory and compensatory mechanisms (venous constriction, increased cardiac output and vascular fluid transfer), and the degree in which these mechanisms respond to, and compensate for, hemorrhagic shock. He reviews clinical tests of human tolerance for blood loss which, "demonstrate that adequate blood pressure can be maintained with minimal symptoms until a 20% blood deficit was reached." Newgard provides the following example:
"For an average 70 kg (155 lb.)* male the cardiac output will be 5.5 liters (~1.4 gallons) per minute. His blood volume will be 60 ml per kg (0.92 fl. oz. per lb.) or 4200 ml (~1.1 gallons). Assuming his cardiac output can double under stress (as his heart beats faster and with greater force). his aortic blood flow can reach 11 liters (~2.8 gallons) per minute. If one assumes a wound that totally severs the thoracic aorta, then it would take 4.6 seconds to lose 20% of his blood volume from one point of injury. This is the minimum time in which a person could lose 20% of his blood volume.... This analysis does not account for oxygen contained in the blood already perfusing the brain, that will keep the brain functioning for an even longer period of time.
"Most wounds will not bleed at this rate because: 1) bullets usually do not transect (completely sever) blood vessels, 2) as blood pressure falls, the bleeding slows, 3) surrounding tissue acts as a barrier to blood loss, 4) the bullet may only penetrate smaller blood vessels, 5) bullets can disrupt tissue without hitting any major blood vessels resulting in a slow ooze rather than rapid bleeding, and 6) the above mentioned compensatory mechanisms."
Newgard investigates the survival times of persons who received fatal gunshot wounds to determine if the person who was shot had enough time to shoot back. He concludes:
"Instantaneous incapacitation is not possible with non central nervous system wounds and does not always occur with central nervous system wounds. The intrinsic physiologic compensatory mechanisms of humans makes it difficult to inhibit a determined, aggressive person's activities until he has lost enough blood to cause hemorrhagic shock. The body's compensatory mechanisms designed to save a person's life after sustaining a bleeding wound, allow a person to continue to be a threat after receiving an eventually fatal wound, thus necessitating more rounds being fired in order to incapacitate or stop the assailant."
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Kindly note numbers 4 and 5 above.
Consider the 1986 FBI shootout in Miami. One of the perps, Platt, was struck with a 9 mm Silvertip 115 gr. JHP. It was his first, and ONLY fatal wound. It entered his right elbow, transected his brachial artery, which began spurting arterial blood and continued to do so until he went down. The bullet then went into his right chest, completely collapsing the lung, and severing several pulmonary vessels, such that about 1300 cc of blood was found in his right chest at autopsy (about 3 pints). The bullet stopped one inch from the wall of the heart.
Do you think that this is good performance from a bullet? I certainly do. However, the perp managed to fight for about 4 minutes after this wound was inflicted, killing and wounding several FBI agents, before becoming incapacitated FROM HIS FIRST WOUND.
The Feebies, of course, couldn't admit that poor marksmanship and tactics were the cause of the debacle; indeed they commended the marksmanship of the agents! And switched to the 10mm. For a short while.
You 'frangibles' want to make the human vascular system into one of those hoses that has a zillion tiny holes in it, and squirt tiny streams of water in all directions. My aim is to cut the darn hose. Even if I do that, however, it may NOT incapacitate the assailant. Unless I keep putting large holes through vital organs. Which is the best way to put an assailant down.
Pluspinc: I visited your web site, but was unable to navagate to the autopsy photos. Your help will be appreciated.
Walt
. I don't mean this as a flame of anyone in any way - there is plenty of "tactical" as well as "technical" gear I'd love to own and use.