Hand trauma

Young male was holding a homemade explosive device. The fuse of the device was lit, and the patient was unable to throw it away before it detonated.

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Comments

nels1 says:

i was just thinking how interesting it would be if you had your films as a diptych but on one of the panels is a photo of the patient's face whilst they're getting their films taken:)
Posted 28 months ago. ( permalink )

Surfactant says:

I like that idea, Nels. I need to keep model release forms on hand. Interesting...
Posted 28 months ago. ( permalink )

nels1 says:

yes, you're right...the most challenging part would be to get their consent to be part of an artistic project when they're writhing in agony...
Posted 28 months ago. ( permalink )

petalfin says:

oooh...thats disturbing
Posted 27 months ago. ( permalink )

Mojo... says:

oh my god - how awful.

--
Seen on your photo stream. (?)
Posted 27 months ago. ( permalink )

Ian David Blüm says:

the same thing happened to me once with a firecracker. Well, ok, not exactly the same thing. I thought the thing was a dud since the fuse went in but it never exploded, then when I picked it up it blew up in my hand. My fingers were numb for days, of course that's nothing compared to the devestation of this guys hand. But I guess we all have to learn some lessons the hard way, eh?
Posted 27 months ago. ( permalink )

sonicwebguru says:

What treamtment did the guy have?
Posted 27 months ago. ( permalink )

Surfactant says:

@- sonicwebguru; The patient underwent surgery to reconstruct the anatomic alignment of his carpals and metacarpals. I am unsure of the outcome on this one, but at the very least, he lost several fingertips.
Posted 27 months ago. ( permalink )

Dalmatica says:

goodness. this is giving me the chills.
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

trav2 says:

This is the only image out of the set that made my jaw drop. That's pretty harsh for a person to go through.
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

velociped says:

yummy! ;-)
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

ukmaggie45 says:

You should offer this to the UK Government to use in their yearly safety adverts about the dangers of fireworks before Guy Fawkes Night (November 5)!

Kids over here just don't seem to get that it's a bit stupid to mess with fireworks and throw them at each other!

Absolutely horrible picture for the obvious reasons, but wonderful image that could do so much good if it was publicised more!

Found you from StreetAnatomy blog BTW.

Best wishes from Liverpool
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

Surfactant says:

Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November.

...and please lengthen the fuse.
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

bart_gibby says:

I had a bomb explode in my hands too. My treatment was surgery obviously, and I had hand therapy for just over 2 years. All in all I had 5 surgeries and stayed just over 2.5 months in the hospital.

We spent several hundreds of thousands recreating my hands. my doctor was the best in the west. I am extremely grateful! I posted a picture or two on my blog. Its bloody so be careful.

www.bartgibby.com/2007/11/20/bart-gibbys-hand s-warning-gr...
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

Surfactant says:

I hope you have recovered much of your hand function, Bart. The actual photograph does look very much similar to this radiograph.
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

sublium says:

I knew a guy in high school who did the same thing (with a small home-made pipe bomb). If I recall correctly, they removed one of his toes and 'recreated' his thumb so that he could grasp things. That's when I gave up anything that remotely resembled fireworks.
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

Surfactant says:

This was a low propagation rate explosive. Even though substances such as this (gunpowder, flash powder, etc.) "explode" at a relatively slow rate, the rapidly expanding gas that is produced can still cause devastating injuries. Substances that truly "detonate" at a high propagation rate, in sufficient volume, would kill.
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

bart_gibby says:

sublium - I totally have seen people with big toe thumbs when I was in physical therapy. You made a good choice its not fun to go through so much pain that you through up, or can't eat.

I saw a kid who blew off his calf muscle with a shot gun, a guy with 3rd degree burns all over his body, a lumber jack or logger who had his truck roll over on him and ripped huge amounts of muscle off one arm and completely severed the other from his body.

As cool as these pictures are, they are and should be a great reminder of our mortal existence. Life is fragile.
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

bart_gibby says:

Surfactant - the ring finger and small finger in this x-ray are clearly dangling from hand.

Mine did the same thing except my x-ray would have shown that the shrapnel from the bomb (empty CO2 cartridge, smokeless gunpowder, and cherry bomb wick), had cut through those finger's bones.

Where in this x-ray picture the separation is clearly "flesh" only. Or if you will those two bones are still intact.

I'll have to get a better picture or two for you guys :).
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

Surfactant says:

Bart, I think you are exceptionally lucky, given the nature of what happened, that you had a hand injury only. That is said not to diminish the trauma, life hardship, and expense you have already incurred. Rather, I think you are illustrating the larger point by saying that life is indeed, fragile. You could have easily been killed by having enclosed the powder in a metal vessel.
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

Andrew :-) says:

Holy cow...this is an insane image.
Posted 26 months ago. ( permalink )

Mr. Sinistrus says:

This is DARK ENLIGHTENMENT!!!
Posted 25 months ago. ( permalink )

frankcheez says:

Wow, way to go, patient - way to be stupid. Didn't his mom ever tell him not to play with homemade explosive devices?
Posted 25 months ago. ( permalink )

✿ sui ✿ says:

Great storytelling!
Posted 24 months ago. ( permalink )

Branddobbe says:

Holy shit! That's why you don't fuck around with firecrackers!
Posted 23 months ago. ( permalink )

David Cowie says:

Reminds me of a report I once read in the paper about a man who had a home-made bomb explode on a table in front of him. The report said (possibly quoting from a medical report) that "his hands had been de-gloved up to the elbow". There was a lot of other damage, but I'm not sure what it was now, because it didn't involve a word as Memorable as "de-gloved".
He had made the bomb himself for a criminal purpose, and ended up going to jail.
--
Seen on your photo stream. (?)
Posted 22 months ago. ( permalink )

fivehole1962 says:

just by even attempting to get a "model release' you'd be breaking HIPPA laws
Posted 22 months ago. ( permalink )

Zlatko Unger says:

auch!
Posted 21 months ago. ( permalink )

bulldog7897 says:

Wow...I've seen lots of ugly xrays, but this is right up there! Ouch, ouch, ouch!
Posted 21 months ago. ( permalink )

kasi metcalfe says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called The Art of Science, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Posted 18 months ago. ( permalink )

--.. [deleted] says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called h ands, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

burned leg says:

I can relate to the injury, but not the cause
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

mmmmmarci says:

oh... my... god.
Posted 16 months ago. ( permalink )

MightyBoyBrian says:

Hooooooly CRAP!!! What a painful mangle. OUCH!
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

Eric Andersson says:

Not quite a Darwin Award.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

__lia says:

Wow.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

Derge says:

Hello to you too!
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

samZABAR says:

Owwww!
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

Matt Rowles says:

That is damn nasty!
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

Randy Hunter [deleted] says:

Front page of Digg

digg.com/health/Don_t_Play_With_Explosives_PI C
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

charlesgoodwin says:

Can someone delete this loser's disgusting propagandist images...
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

davidjamesstaffell says:

I came in to comment about the x-ray, and now feel compelled to write about how disgusting the anti-Obama comments above me are. Seriously, what a child.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

Surfactant says:

I delete them and block his comments, and then he makes a new account and starts again.

Take your propaganda somewhere else, douche-nozzle.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

maryclare.walter says:

very cool
seen on jimmyr.com
♥ maryclare
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

Mr DoeyBags says:

That looks a real mess.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

Orin Zebest says:

An alternate idea: I could swear I've seen this x-ray before, and although I couldn't locate *where*, I can link to this Circus "Lobster Boy". His hands look an awful lot like the x-ray, at least to me. It seems like a kid holding a pipe bomb would have more broken and shattered bones. Lobster boys, on the other hand...

Lobster Boy Picture
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

Surfactant says:

I can see how you would make the correlation. The x-ray, though, does not demonstrate ectrodactyly, the condition that the most famous "lobster claw syndrome" sufferer, Grady Stiles, was born with.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

carljgodwin says:

I'm surprised this never happened to me, i was always messing with fire and fireworks.

Phew!
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

anomalous4 says:

I had a friend in jr. high who used to blow things up with homemade nitroglycerin. He was lucky though - at no time did his hands leave his fingers. Everyone was jealous of him for being able to blow things up for real. That was 40-some years ago when regular peeps could still get real chemicals. Ah, the good old daze.........
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

carE. says:

are u seriously freakin kidding me?
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

raven bleskie says:

holy shittttttt
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

Claudiu Balaceanu Photography says:

OHHH MYYY SWEEETTT COUCHHHH !!!

congrats
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

chdpnurse [deleted] says:

Treatment usually consists of plastic surgery or a hand surgeon.
Posted 11 months ago. ( permalink )

forgetful_chic says:

nasty! i love reading through all of the comments before i post. each picture is like a story that unfolds =P
Posted 11 months ago. ( permalink )

mur4v3y says:

жесть...
Posted 11 months ago. ( permalink )

Bukutgirl says:

wow..
Posted 9 months ago. ( permalink )

Just Back says:

home-made nitoglycerine. What a great idea.
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

morrisoxford61 says:

another candidate for the darwin awards
Posted 6 months ago. ( permalink )

Jared Campbell says:

holy WTF! I
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

grgmsii says:

if i could give an award to the person with the most shocking x-rays, you have the taken the cake. i applaude you.
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

noquarter says:

This had to be a quarter or half-stick of dynamite. A firecracker wouldn't do that; possibly an M-80.
Posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

s.b.fairy says:

i've used this photo in pyrotechnics safety lessons for students, it has a brilliant effect ;)
Posted 2 days ago. ( permalink )

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Hand trauma

Comments

nels1 says:

Surfactant says:

nels1 says:

petalfin says:

Mojo... says:

Ian David Blüm says:

sonicwebguru says:

Surfactant says:

Dalmatica says:

trav2 says:

velociped says:

ukmaggie45 says:

Surfactant says:

bart_gibby says:

Surfactant says:

sublium says:

Surfactant says:

bart_gibby says:

bart_gibby says:

Surfactant says:

Andrew :-) says:

Mr. Sinistrus says:

frankcheez says:

✿ sui ✿ says:

Branddobbe says:

David Cowie says:

fivehole1962 says:

Zlatko Unger says:

bulldog7897 says:

kasi metcalfe says:

--.. [deleted] says:

burned leg says:

mmmmmarci says:

MightyBoyBrian says:

Eric Andersson says:

__lia says:

Derge says:

samZABAR says:

Matt Rowles says:

Randy Hunter [deleted] says:

charlesgoodwin says:

davidjamesstaffell says:

Surfactant says:

maryclare.walter says:

Mr DoeyBags says:

Orin Zebest says:

Surfactant says:

carljgodwin says:

anomalous4 says:

carE. says:

raven bleskie says:

Claudiu Balaceanu Photography says:

chdpnurse [deleted] says:

forgetful_chic says:

mur4v3y says:

Bukutgirl says:

Just Back says:

morrisoxford61 says:

Jared Campbell says:

grgmsii says:

noquarter says:

s.b.fairy says:

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