I'm doing an independent study class at Vanderbilt and I am shadowing in the OMS clinic at the hospital. I've seen two self inflicted gunshot wounds where one used a shotgun and the other guy used a rifle. The shotgun was this past weekend and he was missing part of his mandible and a large part of his maxilla. His orbital floor was by his throat, and he was in really bad shape. You could see his forehead, but everything else was simply bloody tissue, his face was gone. They plated the bone he had left, and removed his wisdom teeth (lol) because they were impacted. (They figured while they were in there, they might as well save him a surgery) I'm surprised he didn't die from blood loss. Apparently it happens pretty often because of the kick from the shotguns when placed under the chin. Luckily, his skin all flapped back over and he only had a small hole to the left of his nose where the birdshot left. It was a sight to see. The rifle lost his nose, and has two small holes by his eyes. He has had about 5 surgeries and still looks like he's in bad shape. The attempted suicide cases are tragic and pretty gruesome.
