Petra Anderson- a good news story from Aurora

[Kathryn41 3,205]

I haven't seen this story told yet here but among the horrors and the tragedies of the Aurora shooting here is one that really does seem miraculous. Petra Anderson was shot 4 times by a shotgun. One of the pellets struck her in the nose, travelled through her brain and lodged in the bone at the back of her skull. She was rushed into surgery with full expectation that she would suffer catastrophic brain damage. Instead, the surgeons discovered that she had an uncommon brain defect in her skull - a fluid filled channel that went through her brain and the pellet had struck her and entered her head at the infinitesimally small point where it could travel along this channel through her brain without striking any major components of the brain or blood vessels. If the pellet had struck just millimeters on either side of this channel or had not travelled straight through, the story would be very different. As it was, the pellet travelled through her brain leaving it virtually unscathed. She is expected to make a full recovery.

It is a remarkable story. Here are the details: http://www.nydailyne...ksEnabled=false

Edited July 25, 2012 by Kathryn41

[X Factor 1,112]

Wow she is so fortunate! It is nice to hear something good from this tragedy.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Yah she's an astonishing medical miracle really. It's pretty amazing. She's got the surgeons baffled. I tell you though that after working in a hospital for ten years I've seen many things. I've even seen miracles like Petra Anderson. Mostly I saw many horrible and tragic things. Even the years I worked in Administration you couldn't get away from it. Cases would pile up of a child's visit to the ER and behind the scene administration staff would be alerted to a possible child abuse case and have to alert the proper authorities because sometimes being on the front lines with each individual case you don't catch the trends. Mostly I worked in both inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation. That's where I'd see Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) like Petra that would baffle the neurosurgeons. They'd all be talking about the case with some element of medical mysticism.

There are a few good survivor stories coming out of this. I imagine there would be a lot of stories we'll be hearing about for years because of the amount of people involved. Christian Bale visited the victims in the hospital with his Wife. There are three girlfriends that say their boyfriends protected them and saved their lives by shielding them with their own bodies. One best friend saved her best friends life by putting her hand on her jugular to stop the bleeding from her gun shot wound (GSW) to the neck and she didn't leave her side even though the shooter was casing the isles. Another woman nine months pregnant survived and had her baby today while her husband who is in the same hospital is recovering from a GSW to the eye. He saw his baby today and couldn't speak but he tried to reach for it and caress it.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Dr. A ♥ O

[Penny Lane 8,159]

That is an unbelievable story. Wow.

[Calypso 464]

Is that what people call blessing in disguise?