Looks Like You Won't Be Needing That Tourniquet

Yikes!



Key Results:

In total, based on responses from medical examiners, a total of 12 mass public shooting events were analyzed in the study. A total of 139 fatalities with 371 total wounds were examined by the investigators. The key results from the study were as follows:

• There was an average of 2.7 wounds associated within the group of fatalities
• The case fatality rate for civilian mass shootings was 44.6% (compared to approximately 10% during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom as reported in other studies).
• 58% of all victims (with fatal and non-fatal wounds) had at least one wound to head or chest/upper back
• 20% (28/139) of all wounds were to the extremity, of which none were deemed to be fatal
• 77% of all fatal wounds were identified in the head or chest/upper back.
• In total, only 9 of the 125 fatalities or roughly 7% (14 excluded given absence of autopsy data) were determined to be potentially survivable
• The most common survivable injury was a wound to the chest (89% of all survivable injuries) without obvious evidence of vascular or cardiac injury
• There was 100% agreement between the reviewers of the study regarding potential survivability of injuries

Takeaways:

• Only 7% of victims in civilian mass shootings had a potentially survivable wound. No fatalities likely occurred secondary to exsanguination from extremity hemorrhage
• The majority of wounds in civilian mass shootings occur primarily in the head, chest/upper back compared to combat environments where the majority of wounds occur in the extremities.
• The case fatality rate for civilian mass shootings compared to military data was much higher, and associated with lower number of potentially survivable injuries