Lungs and Chest

If Bullet · Step 1

Three chest findings, in plain words

"left and right hemothorax"Exhibit 11, pages 3 and 4, as quoted

"bilateral apical and posterior intercostal hemorrhages, pulmonary apical hemorrhages/hematomas …"Exhibit 11, page 3, as quoted. The "…" marks words the prosecutors cut.

• Hemothorax, left and right: blood pooled around both lungs, which squeezes them so they cannot fill with air.
• Intercostal hemorrhages: bleeding in the muscles between the ribs, on both sides, at the top of the chest and at the back.
• Pulmonary apical hemorrhages: bleeding, and pockets of blood, inside the very tops of the lungs.

If Bullet · Step 2

The tops of the lungs reach up into the neck

The tops of the lungs rise just above the collarbones, at the base of the neck. The left top sits close to the end of the State's path, inside the generous stretch zone around it. Bleeding there fits a bullet. Fits either

The quote does not say whether one lung top or both were bleeding. If both, the right one sits across the middle of the body from the path.

If Bullet · Step 3

The left side can fill from above

Blood around the left lung could come from the torn left-neck vessels draining down into the chest, if the lining at the top of the left chest was also torn. That is a reasonable path for a bullet in the left neck.

This is the left side only.

If Bullet · Step 4

The right side fills too

Blood on the right needs damage that crosses the middle of the body into the right chest. The State's path drifts slightly toward his right, but it ends in the neck, on the left side of the spine.

Nothing in the quoted lines describes a track into the right chest. The words the prosecutors cut at the "…" are not public.

If Bullet · Step 5

Bleeding between the ribs, at the back, on both sides

Seen from behind. The examiner lists bleeding in the muscles between the ribs on both sides, at the top of the chest and at the back. That is far from a wound at the front-left of the neck, and would need a second cause, such as a violent jolt of the spine.

CPR mostly breaks ribs and the breastbone at the front of the chest. It does not explain bleeding at the back, on both sides.

Source: Exhibit 11 Analysis

If Bullet · Step 6

Verdict for the chest

Finding	If a bullet
Tops of the lungs	Left: yes. Right, if it bled: no	Either
Blood in the left chest	Could drain down from the neck	Either
Blood in the right chest	Needs damage across the body	Not reached
Between the ribs, both sides, top and back	Far from the path	Not reached

The pattern is both sides at once. One round in the left side of the neck reaches the left; it does not reach the right and the back without a second cause.

Shaped Charge · Step 1

The device sat over the top of the right lung

The transmitter was on the upper right of his chest, under his shirt, just below the collarbone. Behind a thin wall of muscle and rib lies the upper part of the right lung, close to where the lung rises toward the neck.

Air-filled organs are what a blast damages first. Where air meets tissue, a sudden pressure wave tears: the lungs first, then the eardrums and the gut.

Source: Exhibit 11 Analysis

Shaped Charge · Step 2

The wave crosses the whole chest

A blast's pressure wave moves through the body faster than sound moves through air. It crosses the chest in a fraction of a millisecond and strikes both sides at almost the same moment.

That is why blast doctors look for injury on both sides of the chest at once, the pattern a single bullet in the left neck does not make.

Shaped Charge · Step 3

"Blast lung"

Bleeding inside the lungs is the signature blast injury, called blast lung. Both tops of the lungs sit inside the blast's reach.

The bleeding between the ribs on both sides, at the top and at the back, is the chest wall taking the same pressure. Bruising of the chest wall on both sides is a textbook blast finding.

Shaped Charge · Step 4

Both chest cavities fill

Torn lung surfaces and vessels bleed into the space around each lung. The blood pools at the bottom and squeezes the lungs so they cannot fill: left and right, at once.

Analyst Jon Bray's sound work finds a dominant tone near 53 Hz in the loud event at the tent, inside the range he calculates for the air space of the lungs. That is his reading of the recordings; no lab has tested it.

Shaped Charge · Step 5

Verdict for the chest

Finding	If a shaped charge
Tops of the lungs	Blast lung, either or both sides	Fits
Blood in both chest cavities	A blast hits both sides at once	Fits
Between the ribs, both sides, top and back	Chest-wall bruising from the pressure wave	Fits

What would settle it:

• The surface of both lungs: blast lung leaves bruises in the pattern of the ribs.
• His eardrums, the part of the body a blast bursts most easily.
• Which chest findings the examiner put down to CPR or surgery.