Quote:
Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b
I saw a similar story from Vietnam in the newspaper when I was a kid. A Vietnamese man had a 60mm mortar round penetrate his shoulder, break his collarbone, then slip neatly between his shoulder blade and lung, without going off. They had the whole operating room sandbagged off, everyone was wearing flak jackets and helmets, and everyone lived to tell about it.
A few months later, a medical drama had the same situation on one of its episodes, except that it was some kind of stray explosive.
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I think I remember seeing an episode of China Beach (anyone remember that show? I had mixed feelings about it, felt Tour of Duty was better) where they more or less had a scenario like you described Paul. The doctor had to take a live friggin mortar round out of a patient. Of course, what does the doctor do? After taking it out, he doesn't just gingerly set it down in a designated area away from the tent that's been closed off and sandbagged in case it detonates, he RUNS out the damn tent with the mortar round and chucks it away into the dirt....and yes, it detonates. Leave it to TV to needlessly amp up the drama.
