So Mr. Slow, as he shall now be called, was shot above the 3rd rib on his left side, broke his 8th rib on his right side, and then had the bullet exit above his belly button. Now what really happened depends a little bit on what kind of bullet he was shot with and how fast it was traveling, because those two factors determine if the bullet will ricochet, break a bone and keep going, or remain in the body. Now if the conditions were right and the bullet ricocheted in Mr. Slow's body, we have the situation on the left. It went through his left lung, and heart, bounced off his rib, and then went through his pancreas, gallbladder and out his belly button, nicking a host of blood vessels and arteries along the way. It should be fairly obvious that damage to almost every vital organ, including his heart which probably stopped on impact and could not pump anymore, was what killed him. He had no chance of surviving without the function of his heart, and if that hadn't killed him his punctured lung, liver, and pancreas would have, and the internal bleeding would have been overwhelming. The shooter must have been taller than him, since the bullet traveled downward, and he was standing to Mr. Slow's left. He wasn't shot directly from above (not laying down) or behind (only went through the frontal plane). He could have been sitting down, or his assailant could have just been pretty tall (unless Mr. Slow was short, we don't know his height).
Other alternatives don't rely on the chance that the bullet bounced off his 8th rib, although that scenario does seem most likely. The other situation would be like the one pictured on the right, a straight path through the body. When he fell to the right, he could have fractured his rib (we can check that by looking for bullet fragments on his rib: if they're there the bullet bounced, if they're not then he must have fallen on it or been hit). In this situation, there is a chance that the bullet would travel through the Celiac artery, one of the major arteries in the body. Mr. Slow would have bled out within just a few minutes and died quickly. This theory that he died of major internal bleeding could be verified by checking to see if the artery is intact or not. Another possibility is that the bullet simply went straight through his lung and heart. Although damage to one lung might not have been enough to kill him, a shot straight through his left ventricle would inhibit his heart from pumping blood and kill him in minutes. Pair that with internal bleeding, and poor Mr. Slow dies. This can be checked by autopsying his heart and lung to see if they were damaged. My last situation is a little more....glamorous. Mr. Slow is an international spy with a bounty on his head. A sniper takes him out from a perch in a building a couple yards away, and although the bullet doesn't mortally injure him, he used a shrapnel bullet to ensure that Mr. Slow would meet his doom. The bullet bursts inside him, hitting his rib, damaging his heart, severing blood vessels and arteries, and the largest fragment shot out of his body above his belly button. Mr. Slow died of internal bleeding (blood loss). I'd suggest going to the CIA to check this one out...or look for shrapnel.Hey! This is on my website for standard SP2. Check it out here:
https://sites.google.com/site/michelleshonorsbio/webb-science-practices-standards/2-developing-and-using-models
