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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBoston bombings: Officer lost all blood but is expected to recover
-- A Boston officer shot and wounded in pursuit of the marathon bombing suspects last week had to be resuscitated after his heart stopped and he lost his entire blood supply, but doctors and relatives on Sunday said he was emerging from sedation and expected to recover.
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Officer Richard Dick Donohue Jr., 33, of Woburn, Mass., had served with the department for three years when he responded to a call Friday for assistance after a shooting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, officials said. They said it was not clear whether Donohue knew at the time that the MIT officer who had been shot and killed was a friend of his, Sean Collier.
Donohue emerged from his police car and exchanged fire with the suspects before he was shot in the right thigh, officials said. A bullet severed his femoral vein and artery, and Donohue began to bleed out, doctors said.
CPR was started in the field, and he required a prolonged resuscitation that started at the scene and at our emergency room, said Dr. David Miller, a critical care doctor at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, during a Sunday briefing at the hospital.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-boston-bombings-mbta-officer-condition-20130421,0,6889893.story
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)Heather MC
(8,084 posts)It is a true Miracle he is alive
tblue
(16,350 posts)To lose all your blood and still survive. Thank heaven he's gonna pull through. I am determined to give blood this week.
Ruby the Liberal
(26,219 posts)You beat me to it. Didn't even know that was possible. I wonder what the complications are (brain damage from lack of ozygen circulating?) Here's hoping he walks away from this unscathed. Femoral artery wounds are no joke. You can bleed out in minutes from that.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)I suspect they mean he lost the human adult male average blood quantity, not that he didn't have any blood running through him.
Ruby the Liberal
(26,219 posts)Okay - thanks.
Paulie
(8,462 posts)Ruby the Liberal
(26,219 posts)cleduc
(653 posts)gristy
(10,667 posts)Maybe the article is simply noting that he received an amount of blood equal to what the human body typically has (~6 quarts).
GiveMeFreedom
(976 posts)I read on DU that some organs are damaged when they deflate from loss of blood pressure, other than the heart. Makes sense that this was not the case. I am sure he was on some kind of plasma within a short time after he was shot? Peace.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)He required tranfusions equaling his pre-wound blood quantity, etc.
avebury
(10,952 posts)Glad that they were able to get him to the hospital in time.