Glen’s story…. a cautionary tale for shooters
This is the story of Glen Rhodes, in his own words, regarding his injury at point-blank range caused by a fellow soldier whose pistol accidentally discharged. It has not been edited in any way. It is highly recommended that you follow the link at the bottom and read Glen’s full story.
I was shot point blank in the chest Friday the 13th of July 2007, the bullet entered near the front edge of my left armpit about 4 in. to the left of my left nipple and about 2 in above it. The bullet traveled through my left lung destroying about 30% of it then the bullet nicked my aorta and heart sack it then ricocheted of of the inside front of my ribcage. It then tore through my diaphragm leaving a 3 in by 2 in hole in my diaphragm. From there it tore through my stomach destroying 3 acid ducts and causing me to lose about 20% of my stomach. From there the bullet nicked my liver and spleen then it traveled through the back third of my spinal cord canal from about the middle of T11 on my left side to about the middle of T12 where it exited my spinal canal and traveled about another inch to my right parallel with the skin of my back and came to rest. The bullet was a Speer Gold dot 9mm that was fired from a Glock model 17.
The reason that I did not bleed out from the damage to my lung and aorta was that the muzzle blast occurred inside my chest cavity instantly cauterizing them. I flat-lined 4 times that day. The first time was when I was shot the shock wave caused my heart to stop for about 30 seconds. That is a scary feeling, I was conscious and I could feel that there was a very strange and scary still feeling in my chest. (You don’t normally notice when your heart is beating in your chest, but when it is not you SURE AS HELL DO.) I was laying there thinking “I am already dead I just don’t know it yet.” Then for some reason my heart started back up on it’s own. the second time that I flat-lined was in the ambulance. I thought that I blinked and the next thing that I know I feel my body jolt and I open my eyes to see a paramedic lifting the paddles from my chest and he was saying “He’s back.” the last 2 where in the operating room while I was unconscious so I have no idea what happened there.
This was all caused by a fellow soldier who was being stupid and playing with his personal handgun. The pic of clothing that you see is my uniform top. The police department did not return the handgun which is a Glock 17 to the owner John. Instead the dept had me fill out the paperwork for a background check and handed the gun over to me. I know that it was an accident and I worked with the police dept and the district attorney to not press charges, yeah he was stupid but it was an accident. When I was being taken to the ambulance I had reached out and grabbed John’s hand and told him “John I forgive you.” At present he is stationed in Iraq, and we are still friends.
Part of the reason other than him pointing a gun at something other than what we wanted to shoot was due to improper safety procedures by him as well. While we had been talking he had removed the mag and cleared the weapon. Later when we were getting ready to head out he had replaced the magazine in the weapon but had not chambered it. He then set the weapon down and did some other things he then picked up the weapon and opened the slide at an angle that allowed him to see into the chamber and see that it was clear but not enough of an angel to see the loaded mag. When he released the slide the weapon chambered. We all are at fault for not double checking each others weapons not just John. After that John screwing around pointed it against my blouse and against my chest. The next second, he already being a dumbass for pointing a weapon at someone he didn’t intend to destroy, he pulled the triger. I saw the look on his face when the weapon went off, which is why I know that it was an accident. I went in less than a second from a 6ft 4in healthy infantryman to a paraplegic fighting to stay alive. At this point he went basically clinically hysterical and was useless.
I was lucky because at that point the wonderful Military Police soldier who was standing next to me had her training kick in and helped get my blouse and t-shirt off she then used the t-shirt to stop me from bleeding out and more air getting in my chest cavity delaying my lungs from collapsing. She then got me stabilized till paramedics arrived. The female soldier that kept her head straight working on keeping me alive is a wonderful person that I have known since January of 2000. When the gun went off she looked down and saw a wounded soldier laying on the ground instead of freaking out and seeing her husband on the ground dieing. Yes you heard me right I am her husband, and as of when I was shot we had been married 7 years.
I owe my life to her and I will never be able to repay her for that. I am writing this on 7 Feb 2010. As of 11 Feb we will have been married 10 years. I have since gotten out of the Army at the end of Nov of 2009. having served 2+ yrs after getting paralyzed. I tell my story often to people to try to help them be aware of how easily a firearms related mishap can happen. We were and are trained professionals, and we knew better. We just got too lax around firearms. Never let yourself be relaxed with your weapons. If my story can keep even one person from messing up and someone from getting injured then I feel what happened to me is worth it.
Read the rest by clicking here, it’s worth the click.
Tags: firearm safety, gun safety
Get the RSS