A number of court documents pertaining to Boston bomber suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev‘s injuries were unsealed yesterday.
In one of several transcripts, trauma surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Dr. Stephen Ray Odom admitted that Tsarnaev was physically able to speak after he was arrested by police, even though many news outlets claimed that he wasn’t.
Dr. Odom stated that Tsarnaev had a serious gunshot wound, where a bullet entered through his mouth and came out on the left side of his face. It isn’t known whether this was self-inflicted or from a policeman.
A portion of the transcript was revealed wherein Dr. Odom answered questions directly asked by the judge presiding over Tsarnaev’s case.
THE COURT: What is his medical state at the present time?
DR. ODOM: Guarded.
THE COURT: Can you give me a brief summary of his injuries?
DR. ODOM: He has multiple gunshot wounds, the most severe of which appears to have entered through the left side inside of his mouth and exited the left face, lower face. This was a high-powered injury that has resulted in skull-base fracture, with injuries to the middle ear, the skull base, the lateral portion of his C1 vertebrae, with a significant soft-tissue injury, as well as injury to the pharynx, the mouth, and a small vascular injury that’s been treated. He has, in addition to this, some ophthalmologic injuries that have been treated. He has multiple gunshots wounds to the extremities that have been treated with dressings to the lower extremities; and in the case of his left hand, he had multiple bony injuries as well that were treated with fixation and soft-tissue coverage, as well as tendon repair and vascular ligation.
THE COURT: Internal or external fixation?
DR. ODOM: The pins are internal, but the wound is still open.
THE COURT: Does he know where he is, and does he know what has happened since arriving at the hospital in terms of procedures?
DR. ODOM: He definitely knows where he is. He knows that he has had multiple procedures, but I’m not sure how aware he is of the specifics. He knows that he has an injury to the neck and to the hand.
THE COURT: In your professional opinion, based on your training and experience, is he lucid enough to understand and respond to basic questions, if not vocally, using hand signals?
DR. ODOM: He is able to respond vocally.
Tsarnaev is suspected of planting two homemade bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon earlier this year, along with his older brother Tamerlan, who was fatally shot by police. Dzhokhar has since pled not guilty to all charges he faces in his 30-count indictment, which include charges of bombing a place of public use, as well as using a weapon of mass destruction.
SOURCE: BuzzFeed
