Doctors Find Man With Intense Headache Had Been Shot in the Head

A man who thought he had been knocked out by robbers at a bus stop found out after going to the hospital that he had been shot in the head.

The man, aged 38, was violently robbed in the city of La Plata, Argentina, passing out and waking up with a splitting headache and his bag having been stolen. After going to San Martín Hospital for the pain, he thought he had been beaten by the robbers. However, the doctors told him he had been shot and that there was a bullet inside his skull.

Somehow, the bullet had missed all important areas and did not affect any bone structure, local news outlet TN reported.

Usually, being shot in the head is fatal, as the bullet destroys brain matter as it passes through at high speeds—2,000 feet per second—and creates a shock wave that can also damage the surrounding tissue.

Firearms are a leading cause of death by traumatic brain injury, with 35 percent of such deaths being due to gunshot wounds to the head, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Around 90 percent of head gunshot wounds are fatal, with many dying before they reach the hospital, and about half dying in the ER.

The extent of the survivability of a head gunshot wound involves a variety of factors, including the size and speed of the bullet, and the part of the brain that the bullet passes through. If the bullet passes through important vascular structures from the left frontal lobe tip toward the temporal lobe and brainstem, it can cause devastating damage, while passing through less vital brain tissues can be survivable.

Best-case scenarios involve the bullet damaging only one lobe on a single side of the brain. The motor and sensory controls of the left side of the body are controlled by the right side of the brain, and vice versa; while cognition, memory, speech and vision are controlled by both sides of the brain. Damage to only one side of the brain can leave the victim impaired but still somewhat functional.

Even if the bullet spares the most important parts of the brain, blood clots and swelling within the brain may arise, causing extra damage.

There have been previous tales of people surviving seemingly deadly brain injuries, including a Portuguese man who survived a metal rod being flung into his brain in 2022. Then there was the infamous case of Phineas Gage, who survived for 12 years after a large metal tamping rod left a large hole all the way through his head in Vermont in 1848.

In modern days, around half of survivors of traumatic brain injuries will have seizures, and need anti-epilepsy medication.

The La Plata man remains in hospital under observation, with doctors preparing to remove the bullet from his head without causing more damage.

The perpetrators of the attack are still unknown, and local police investigators are looking into the crime.

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