Shriners Parade 06/21/03

Spinal Cord Rehabilitation

When I was a paramedic, I was called to a convenience store located in a rural area. A seven-year-old boy had been shot in the chest by his brother, a twelve-year-old who had been playing with a pistol at his uncle’s house. Panicked, his parents picked him up and carried him to the car, intending to drive him to a hospital. Being from Mexico, they were unfamiliar with the area and got lost, finally stopping at a 7-11, where someone called for an ambulance.

With a gunshot wound to the chest, we worry about the obvious threats to life. Major organs that lay beneath the area where the bullet entered the body included the heart, lungs, trachea, esophagus, and major blood vessels.

We never forget the spinal cord. Before I took the boy from his mother’s arms, I did a rapid assessment. He was conscious, alert, oriented, and his skin color was good; but he couldn’t move his legs. We carefully but quickly moved him onto a pediatric spineboard, but the damage was already done. He couldn’t tell when I was touching his foot and, as it turned out, he was paralyzed from the waist down.

That didn’t change. While the path of the bullet somehow missed the heart and the other major organs that are housed within the chest cavity, it didn’t miss the spinal cord.

Continued ...