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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsExperts: You CAN'T BREAK YOUR OWN SPINE Like Freddie Gray
"....Another trauma surgeon, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the political nature of the case and because he is surprised time and again by what I previously believed to be impossible, thinks that its highly unusual (if not impossible) to deliberately make yourself a quadriplegic while shackled in the back of a police van.....
On Wednesday night, The Washington Post leaked an alleged report from the Baltimore Police Department, which claims that Freddie Gray, the 21-year-old who died a week after his spine was fractured while in police custody, was intentionally trying to injure himself in the back of a Baltimore Police van. The report, whose author is unknown, cites a single source: an unnamed second man who was in the van with Gray for a short time, but could not see him. But if Freddie Gray was trying to break his own spinal cord in the back of a van, according to experts in spinal trauma injuries, it might be the first self-inflicted injury of its kind. I have never seen it before. Ive never seen somebody self-inflict a spinal cord injury in that way, says Anand Veeravagu, a Stanford University Medical Center neurosurgeon who specializes in traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries. Its hard for me to understand that, unless those terms (like intentional and injure himself) are being used incorrectly. Its hard for me to envision how a person could try to do that, he says. It would require them to basically hang themselves in a car where there isnt anything to hang yourself with.
Veeravagu says that there are only a few ways you can injure your spine in a similar way to the injuries that ultimately led to Grays death. One, he says, is by a sharp injury, which is a direct penetrating injuryeither somebody with a knife who knows what theyre doing, or something else that cuts through, like a gunshot wound. The other way, more pertinent to Grays case, is by trauma, where the bones are fractured and the ligaments are torn as a result of force or impact. It is very difficult to sever your spinal cord without a known fracture, says Veeravagu. Often, when patients come in with this kind of injury, youll find theyve been either in a car accident or something similar to that kind of impact. There are times where Veeravagu, who is a former White House Fellow, has seen suicide or self-harm by means of a spinal cord injury, but its always by hanging, or by using an apparatus Gray couldnt have on-hand.
Unfortunately, sometimes people attempt suicide by hanging themselves. Its one of the only ways Ive seen where you can (commit suicide or intentional self-harm) by spinal fracture. They kick their chair out, they fall, they snap their neck. It results in immediate spinal cord injury, he says. But its very hard to see how somebody could attempt suicide by a spinal cord injury without the use of something else. But its even in those instances, he says, patients often dont die of a spinal cord injury. And most who are taken to the hospital in time after suffering spinal cord injuriesself-inflicted or notsurvive the trauma. Most spinal cord injuries are not fatal if patients are taken to the hospital, Veeravagu says. Most survive.
Outlets covering The Washington Posts leak have called the claims from the unnamed source a twist and a new narrative (that) questions police brutality claim. On Wednesday night, CNNs broadcast ran a breaking news banner that read: BREAKING NEWS: WASH. POST: GRAY TRIED TO HURT HIMSELF, and the video remains on CNNs Youtube page. The Washington Posts initial report does not reach out to any medical professionals to determine the feasibility of the leaked documents claims. The official police report of Grays arrest was scheduled to be released publically on Friday, but police delayed the release on Wednesday. Im surprised they released that piece of information without a more detailed account, says Veeravagu. Another trauma surgeon, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the political nature of the case and because he is surprised time and again by what I previously believed to be impossible, thinks that its highly unusual (if not impossible) to deliberately make yourself a quadriplegic while shackled in the back of a police van.
cont'
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/30/experts-you-can-t-break-your-own-spine-like-freddie-gray.html
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Experts: You CAN'T BREAK YOUR OWN SPINE Like Freddie Gray (Original Post)
Segami
Apr 2015
OP
Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)1. It is also difficult to smash your own voicebox?
Someone hit him several times with a baton?
onecaliberal
(32,811 posts)2. We already knew these fuckers were going to
Try to come up with some impossible story. They're too stupid to come up with anything plausible.
bravenak
(34,648 posts)3. The other prisoner says he did not say that.
nc4bo
(17,651 posts)4. Haven't you heard? A bolt in the van caused all this.
Lawrence Odonnell with a "leaked" autopsy findings.
I just don't believe anything coming from Baltimore officials right now.
Segami
(14,923 posts)5. "....What’s more: The WJLA report claims...
".....that the person driving the police van has yet to give an official statement to authorities, which certainly makes it seems like he or she is lawyering up or, at the very least, hiding something.
http://gawker.com/report-freddie-gray-suffered-fatal-head-wound-in-back-1701341911
http://gawker.com/report-freddie-gray-suffered-fatal-head-wound-in-back-1701341911
".....The officer driving the van has yet to give a statement to authorities. Its also unclear whether Grays head injury was voluntary or was a result of some other action...."
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2015/04/breaking-news-no-evidence-found-that-freddie-gray-s-death-was-result-of-police-who-arrested-him-prob.html
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2015/04/breaking-news-no-evidence-found-that-freddie-gray-s-death-was-result-of-police-who-arrested-him-prob.html
postulater
(5,075 posts)6. So which was it: a head injury from a bolt or a severed spine?
Has there been an autopsy report yet?