Long Term Survival following Firearm Injury to the Head

Abstract

A case is reported of long term survival following extensive frontal lobe damage caused by firearm injury in 1941. The deceased lived until December 1975 with only epileptic-type fits involving the right upper arm only and no recorded personality changes. Sudden death in 1975 and autopsy examination revealed that she had died of myocardial infarction caused by coronary arterial thrombosis. In the brain there was a large cylindrical defect involving both frontal lobes.