Rafi Colon was shot once in the abdomen with a 9 mm handgun during a home invasion in September 2005. The bullet tore through his intestines. Trauma surgeons at Temple had to open his abdomen to repair the injuries, but fistulas developed, holes that wouldn’t heal, and until they healed, the incision couldn’t be closed. He spent the next 11 months in the hospital, immobilized in bed, with an open wound down the front of him that had the circumference of a basketball. It got to the point where it was a normal thing for him to look down and think, oh, those are my intestines, there they are.
...just after I first scheduled this post, this article arrived.
It’s the kind of trouble trauma surgeons see often, and they have learned though bitter experience how best to deal with it.
The first priority is to operate to stop the bleeding and control any contamination that might arise from something like a torn intestine. Afterward, hospital staff members wheel the patient from the operating room straight to intensive care, often with the abdomen still open.