Tonight, doctors are saying that 19 year old Ahmaad Nah is making slow progress. He is the Camalote resident who was accidentally shot to the head with a pellet gun by a 12 year old girl on Sunday. He’s been in a medically induced coma since then and he remains that way tonight in the ICU at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. The pellet is still lodged in his brain but a CAT scan performed yesterday shows that the swelling is subsiding. Adult Intensivist Jorge Hidalgo is leading a team of doctors treating him. This afternoon he discussed the results of the CAT Scan with Keith Swift.
Dr. Jorge Hidalgo, Adult Intensivisit
“He is making some progress, very slow but he is making some progress. We did a repeat CAT scan yesterday to have an idea about the brain swelling and compared with the initial one it is showing some progress. The extension of the inflammation is subsiding.”
But Dr. Jorge Hidalgo, the lead physician treating Ahmaad, stressed that they
are still unable to determine the level of damage to his brain.
Dr. Jorge Hidalgo,
“It is very difficult at this point to say. The most important thing is that the heating waves, the expansive heating waves, that is the most important thing that is causing damage to the brain, the point of entry and where the bullet is located. That creates an expansive heating wave and that creates inflammation and that is the most important aspect that we are dealing with and trying to control; the inflammation and as a result of the inflammation the brain tissue gets swollen.”
Keith Swift,
“Is he brain dead?”
Dr. Jorge Hidalgo,
”No, not at this point. It is a very difficult case. One of the advantages that this patient has is his age. He is 19 and that is in his favour because he is fighting. He is making some progress in the last 48 hours.”
Ahmaad’s mother Diana Nah has renewed hope that her son might make it.
Diana Nah, Mother of Ahmaad Nah
“I am so happy about it because everybody who is out there praying for my son, just continue praying because you are doing a good job and the Good Lord up there is doing a good job. Everybody is happy. When I got the news I just started spreading it to the family who I could reach and let them know how Ahmaad is doing. So he is doing very good right now.”
While the family has spoken about Ahmaad’s survival in terms of percentage, Dr. Hidalgo warns against that. And again he says Ahmaad’s age is the number one thing in his favour.
