Bierbrodt 'lucky' to be alive

''He was ... fortunate in the path of those bullets,'' doctor says of pitcher.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published June 12, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- For a 24-year-old athlete lying in a hospital bed recovering from surgery, with holes in his chest and two bullets in his body, Nick Bierbrodt is a lucky man.

The doctor treating the Rays pitcher said Tuesday it was due only to good fortune that the bullets passed through Bierbrodt's chest without killing him.

"For an unfortunate incident, I would say he's an exceptionally lucky individual," said Dr. David Cole, chief of surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina.

"I don't know how to quantify it, but I would just say the majority of the people that have that situation, with those gun shots to that area, would not have made it to the hospital alive because they would not have been fortunate enough for the bullets to have missed all the major vessels. He was very fortunate in the path of those bullets."

Bierbrodt was moved out of intensive care Tuesday and his condition was upgraded to good, and he is expected to be released by the weekend.

If there are no complications or unexpected developments, Bierbrodt should be able to resume his career, Cole said, perhaps by the start of next season.

"All in all, he's done very well," Cole said. "He sustained serious and potentially life-threatening injuries and ... it seems like he's cleared a lot of hurdles."

Bierbrodt, in a statement released by his agents, said: "I promise that I will be up, around and back on the hill soon."

Bierbrodt was shot early Friday while sitting in a taxicab at a Hardee's restaurant drive-through in Charleston. Witnesses said Bierbrodt was shot by a young male, possibly a minor, who was on a bicycle, following a "short verbal exchange" related to the bicyclist's rap music. Police have not made an arrest.

The small-caliber bullets, one of which first passed through flesh on Bierbrodt's right arm, entered his chest, traversed through his diaphragm (the muscle between the chest and the abdomen) and ended up in his liver, where doctors will leave them.

Somehow, they missed his aorta (by millimeters, according to Cole), heart, inferior vena cava (the body's largest vein), esophagus and major vessels going to and from the liver.

"Given the possibilities, they missed a lot of important structures that could have killed him or put him in a not-even-reach-the-hospital situation," Cole said. "If he was hit in the aorta his chances of survival would have been significantly less."

Of additional benefit, the shooting took place just a few blocks from the hospital, which is the top-level trauma center in the area, and the driver of the cab took Bierbrodt there immediately.

Bierbrodt had surgery for 90 minutes Friday to stop significant bleeding from his chest and liver and repair damage to his diaphragm. He had a series of tests to rule out additional damage, specifically to the aorta and surrounding areas, then had another operation Monday to remove blood clots, clean his right lungs and insert a second tube for drainage.

By Tuesday afternoon, he was eating lunch and in good spirits, Cole said. "He's comfortable and it seems like everything is moving rapidly in the right direction."

The bullets will be left in Bierbrodt's liver unless there is a shift in position that could cause additional damage, with the proximity to the aorta the major concern. Cole said that there is a greater risk in taking them out than leaving them in, and that "generally what the body will do is scar it off and wall it off and leave it alone."

Bierbrodt has chest wounds from the bullets (about the size of the tip of a pinky finger) and tubes, a flesh wound on his right biceps, an incision from the abdominal surgeries and considerable soreness and muscle weakness, and he will need an extended period of time to regain strength and stamina.

But, Cole said, he eventually should be able to resume pitching.

"I'm not aware of any injures he sustained that would have a significant long-term impact in his overall health or his physical well-being," Cole said.