Dr. James Boron, Gruesome ER Stories [Warning: Graphic, Horrific]

In this episode, the conversation delves into the complexities of trauma surgery, particularly focusing on gunshot wounds and the challenges faced by trauma surgeons. The guest, Dr. Boron, shares insights from his experiences, discussing the differences between various types of injuries, the critical importance of timely medical intervention, and the miraculous recoveries that can occur in the trauma unit. The discussion also covers the technical aspects of trauma care, including the management of blood loss, the importance of airway and breathing, and the intricate process of identifying and treating injuries. Through case studies and personal anecdotes, the episode highlights the high stakes and emotional weight of trauma surgery. This conversation delves into the complexities of trauma care, focusing on pain management, the implications of helmet laws for motorcycle accidents, insights from a medical examiner's perspective, and a remarkable case involving a gunshot wound to the heart. The discussion highlights the challenges faced by trauma surgeons and the importance of experience in making critical decisions during surgery. In this episode, James shares his experiences as a trauma surgeon, discussing the critical role of O-negative blood in emergencies, the management of trauma cases, and the emotional impact of dealing with life-and-death situations. He emphasizes the importance of mentorship in surgical training and recounts some of the most gruesome injuries he has encountered, highlighting the complexities of trauma care and the race against time in surgery.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

All right, guys, welcome back to another episode. There's millions across the country that will not need an introduction to today's guest. He was on episode 13, and I'm not kidding with millions, and I'll get into it. The reels that we've been putting out across the web are just exploding. So I like to call you, Dr. Boron, you're the surgeon that has blown up the internet and is continuing to blow up the internet. And I mean it. It's incredible, right? You've told such awesome stories in episode 13 that we're going to get into. I want to have you dig a little deeper because they're making a lot of waves out on the internet. So I'm going to dive into the first one. is you mentioned, or you told a story of getting shot in the liver, how it's just the worst. Okay, so I have comments pulled up here that I'm going to go through right now, so you can see. And I don't know, there's probably a couple thousand of them, but I want to highlight a few. So you had surgeons responding on there going, oh my gosh, it's horrendous. We run out of blood, all these different things. But then you got people, I want you to start off by speaking to these people that say things like this. Really? How could that be the worst? You're telling me it's worse than a headshot? What about a shot to the heart? But we got a lot of those. So they're not getting it. And I want you to dispel it now, what you really meant by it. Minimal, right. Yep, I'll write it. I'll note it so we get into it. Yep.

UNKNOWN: 3:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 3:46

Yep. Uh-huh. Yeah. Mm-hmm. yeah yeah yeah Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah. yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right, so we'll put, excluding that one. That makes a lot of sense. What about the blood? One of the guys, he said he's a surgeon. So I'm gonna, I mean, his comment makes sense. He said, He was speaking to the other people inside the comments and said, hey, what Dr. Boron's really talking about is just what you said. It's the worst that you're going to survive, obviously. But he made that comment about how much blood. With the liver, do you go through tons of blood? Okay. Boom. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

UNKNOWN: 15:23

it.

SPEAKER_01: 16:32

Jeez. Okay. Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 18:22

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01: 18:28

Yes. Yeah. Wow. Yep.

UNKNOWN: 20:34

Yeah. Peace.

SPEAKER_01: 21:20

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so speaking of, I want to see this case through your eyes. So the last episode that went up was episode 59, and it was a guy that came in through one of your YouTube shorts, which is so cool. So you had a YouTube short out there. I think it was about a gunshot in the heart, which we're going to get into that story. And this guy from Vidalia, Georgia, if I'm even saying that the right way, writes in the comments out there on the internet. And he said, hey, trauma surgeons are miracle workers. I would like to share my case. Here's a little bit of it. So he wrote a little bit of the comment. Well, it was so good when I did the pre-interview that we launched a full episode yesterday. So he went up, it's episode 59. In a nutshell, he's 55 now. He was 18 when it happened. He got shot right in the center with a 30-30 from 100 yards Okay, a 30-30 hunting rifle. It doesn't go out the back. Miraculously, it goes down his windpipe five inches, blows out the lung. Fast forwarding, he goes three hours without any kind of pain medication or anything, has an emergency trach that they used, the bullet hole for the trach, but the surgeon had to cut a chest tube with no anesthesia, no local, no nothing. So he's 55 now and he's got the scars, obviously, but he's alive and functioning perfectly normal, which is incredible. But then he goes to college a couple months later, which was really cool. And his roommate goes, can I ask about the things on your neck, the scars? And it turns out that the roommate's dad was the surgeon in the case, which is, right?

UNKNOWN: 23:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 23:43

So I know you and I are aligned there, what we're thinking, like that's a bigger story. But try to get me in the seat of that amount of trauma through your eyes, through the eyes of a surgeon. I

SPEAKER_00: 24:02

can't.

SPEAKER_01: 24:24

Hmm. Wow.

UNKNOWN: 24:43

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01: 24:55

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, got it. Yep. Wow. Wow. What a way to look at it. Yeah, sure. Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah. His went down. Got him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 30:51

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01: 31:05

Right. Okay. Yep.

UNKNOWN: 32:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 32:33

Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 33:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 33:53

Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 34:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 35:16

wow that's unbelievable how do you oh my gosh that's awesome so how do you measure that amount of pain he's telling me and i'm like I don't know if I want to pass out. My body's cold. I got goosebumps. I'm like, I can't imagine it. No anesthesia, no local, no nothing. How much pain is that? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Incredible. Wow. Moving on. I'm going to speak to a large category of folks. I think particularly in the southeast of the country, but it's a law that's spreading out across the country that drive around on these two-wheeled motorcycles, man, without helmets. I don't care if the law says I can go without it or I need it or I don't need it, whatever. I'm thinking I'm wearing one, but I respect their opinion to not wear one. My question is when these types of accidents come in, Do they ever, ever really recover? Helmetless accidents on motorcycles? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah, whatever. Yep. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. All right. All right. Yeah. Just because you can doesn't mean you should, right? It comes down to. All right. What would be good questions? I have a medical examiner from GBI coming on in a couple weeks. I'm just curious through your eyes. What would be good questions? I know what I want to ask him. What would be some cool stuff to ask them? Right. Yeah. Uh-huh. What? It doesn't. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 46:13

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_01: 46:21

Wow. Okay. That's really cool. So chain of custody is an incredible term. I never heard that before as it relates to a bullet. So you're pulling it out. You're putting it on something. It's going in some kind of bag, you said, or whatever. Yeah, it comes together like an actual... Yeah. Yeah. Got it. Okay. There was a gunshot story that you started in the beginning, but you said you want to come back to and remind you. So I wrote it down. It had to do with the heart and a gunshot. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Go. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah, for sure.

UNKNOWN: 51:43

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01: 52:39

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 53:15

Well,

SPEAKER_01: 53:56

Sure. Yeah. I love it. Mm hmm. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Right. Right. What is that? What does that mean? Go on bypass? Okay. Yeah. Right. Interesting. They start bleeding.

SPEAKER_00: 58:58

Wow.

UNKNOWN: 59:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 59:19

Yeah. Gosh, that's What gets in there to get that kind of picture? Is that a CT or an MRI? Wow. That's unbelievable. That's an incredible story, man. Right, right. yeah that's that's unbelievable i mean there could literally be a chance that that's the only time that ever happened ever right Maybe not now. Yeah. Jeez. In episode 13, we cut out a little clip. It's such an incredible story, and that's just done so well out across the internet. So many people have commented and seen it, where you go like this, the famous bullet up against the heart that you saw on the imaging. You didn't go too, too much. I don't know the details of it, but you just sort of glazed over it like this. Go into detail about that case. How does a bullet rest up against a guy's heart without him dying? And you said he walked right out of the ER room. Yeah, you were doing that with your finger. What was that? What happened there? Mm hmm. Sure. Right. Okay. Live x ray. Wow. Right. Gosh, that's so cool. Yeah. Yeah, right. And he walked. Gosh, that's such an awesome story. I love that one. So you're going, you got a case, your people are running around. I could just see it. It's like frantic, chaotic. You're trying to keep somebody alive. You got, you're giving them blood. What happens if you give them, I think it's like A and B and all the different bloods. What happens if you give somebody that just straight up wrong blood? Do they die? Yeah. Yeah. That's incredible. Anyone can take... Anyone can... Incredible. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Got it. Okay, that's a big thing. back in episode 13. Again, we you just touched on this week, I want to go into detail today, though. You mentioned that there was a time in your career that you had, I want to say it was Chicago. But you said it was normal to have, I think, 20 beds as one trauma surgeon, get me there, get what does that feel like? And you said there was a time when they were all full? Okay. Yeah. Got it. They're not dying. Got it, okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

UNKNOWN: 1:15:41

Sure.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:01

Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 1:16:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:36

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 1:18:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 1:18:17

What? Right. Go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 1:21:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:22:15

Ugh.

SPEAKER_01: 1:23:31

Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 1:23:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 1:24:13

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, gosh. Hello. Right. Wow.

UNKNOWN: 1:26:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 1:26:02

Right. Did you ever see it again? Anything like that? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I remember a story like that from your original episode where you said you would have never picked up on something, but a guy was there in one of your procedures that had like 30 years. I forget what it was, but I remember you saying that. How important is that? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. yeah much more apparent oh yeah wow all right last um last area of focus what's the just the absolute to the normal person the most gruesome thing that you ever saw that we would think is just the group like Somebody came in, I don't know, and their brain was sticking out of their head. Yeah, I love that. I love that. Yeah. Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 1:29:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 1:29:35

Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:30:54

Ugh.

SPEAKER_01: 1:31:28

Okay. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

UNKNOWN: 1:33:57

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 1:35:03

God. Does it even matter? When you get somebody like that, do you need to know what happened? It doesn't even matter. Do you need to know he was hit from this angle or he was... You don't even need to know that, do you? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:36:00

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:36:24

Yeah. How? What was that? What that was? What? What exactly happened? Did he get? Oh, my gosh. Wow. What? Okay. Touch on this, then we'll wrap up. That was the most incredible hour and 36 minutes. Oh my gosh, that was awesome. What's your drive home a day like that? Your ride home from work? Is it, honey, I'll be home and tell the kids I said, is it a normal drive home or does that affect you in a different way? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:38:34

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01: 1:38:42

Yeah. Yeah. That's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Wow. All right. Man, that was an awesome, almost two hours, hour and 45 minutes anyways. Man, thank you so much. I have our next episode literally outlined. I've been taking notes. Our next episode's set up and we're going to start, you're going to update us, not today, but I want to hear everything that's going on in the skin world. I know you're growing skin and that's just fascinating. We talked about it in episode 13. I'm going to get Yeah, yeah, we will for sure. So I'll have you on again real soon. But for today, man, thanks. Thanks a million. That's awesome. And just stay on after. It'll tell you 99% and then it'll go to 100. Okay, thanks. See you.