Woman’s Breast Implant Deflects .40-Caliber Bullet, Saving Her Life

Authors Current Events Jordan Michaels This Week
Woman’s Breast Implant Deflects .40-Caliber Bullet, Saving Her Life
Doctors believe the woman’s implants changed the trajectory of the bullet and saved her life. (Photo: Giancarlo McEvenue, Creative Commons License)

Silicone breast implants make poor body armor as a general rule, but in one case in 2018 they were just enough to save a woman’s life.

A 30-year-old woman arrived at a trauma center in Toronto, Canada, after suffering a gunshot wound to the chest. Doctors were surprised to find her “comfortable… with no distress” and soon discovered that the bullet had been slowed and deflected by one of her breast implants.

“The benefits of breast augmentation are generally accepted to be on quality of life, as until recently implants had never been considered life-saving,” the doctors reported in a case study published last week.

“Based on trajectory of bullet entry clinically and evaluation radiologically, the only source of bullet deflection of the bullet is the left breast implant. This implant overlies the heart and intrathoracic cavity and therefore likely saved the women’s life,” the report concludes.

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The copper-jacketed .40-caliber projectile entered the woman’s left breast, but doctors discovered the bullet lodged in the lower portion of the right breast. The woman suffered a broken rib, broken implants, and a gunshot wound but was otherwise unscathed.

“The bullet entered the skin on the left side first, and then ricocheted across her sternum into the right breast and broke her rib on the right side,” surgeon Giancarlo McEvenue told CNN. “The implant caused the change in the trajectory of the bullet.”

Police are still investigating the incident that caused the woman’s injury. She told doctors that she felt heat and pain in her left chest while walking down the street. Looking down and seeing blood, she took herself to the local emergency department. The firearm was not recovered, and the perpetrator remains unknown.

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Breast implants have been recorded saving a person’s life in only a few other incidents. In one case, a 59-year-old woman sustained two shotgun wounds to the chest through a door. The birdshot ruptured her right breast implant, but otherwise she sustained no injuries. Doctors determined that the implant had saved her life.

In another study, researchers investigated the effects of breast implants on bullet velocity and lethality. They determined that a .40 S&W hollow-point round fired out of a 4.5-inch barrel experiences a 20.6% decrease in penetration distance when fired through a silicone breast implant. This is due to the loss of velocity the bullet undergoes while traveling through the implant as well as the tendency of the projectile to mushroom in the implant before it enters the body.

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  • Thomas May 2, 2020, 9:12 pm

    Well, damn! That one tough melon!

  • Hondo April 25, 2020, 1:28 pm

    Looks like Slim is off his meds , they should never have closed down all those mental facilities .

    Now these nuts are societies problem , that’s no Bueno.

  • David Kent April 25, 2020, 10:44 am

    Dunno about bullet protection, but I know they don’t conduct heat very well. Working nights in a popular oceanfront city, parked our unit in view of the most popular bars….we’d bet on the ‘authenticity’ of the better endowed ladies walking past. Then one look thru our IR binoculars would verify. Red/real, blue/bought.

  • Randy April 24, 2020, 10:09 pm

    Wow. LOL. THAT’S a slim slam! Ahh, do you feel better now?

  • Ej harbet April 24, 2020, 4:41 pm

    Kinda explains why they feel like a level 3 insert,lol

  • Clyde Rockey April 24, 2020, 4:28 pm

    Does that mean a 38 beats a 40?

  • Rick April 24, 2020, 3:38 pm

    My one experience with silicone implants involved removing a ruptured one. It was weeks before we were able to remove all of the dripped silicone from the OR floor. It had a stringiness like model glue. I wonder if the consistency of the silicone and it’s heavy-duty covering that contributed to the deflection.

    I also wonder if the saline-filled implants (what I spent my 27 years workin with) would offer the same “protection”.

    Also, I concur with Plastic Surgeon above: most implant cases were cosmetic. my 2¢ worth.

  • TJ Reeder April 24, 2020, 12:37 pm

    Easy there Slim or somebody will nominate you for a red flag. Commenting ios fine but foaming at themouthj is frowned on.

  • Ti April 24, 2020, 11:55 am

    Looks like ballistic gel vs silicone gel on youtube now.

  • usmcm14 battley April 24, 2020, 10:56 am

    Damn was it a pair of double D implants or larger??

  • Ted Conner April 24, 2020, 10:47 am

    To Darth Vader mother. Do you not know that a fired bullet is extremely hot, if not, just do a little research.
    To slim, you could have said all that BS in about 5 words, just proves you have about the same mentality.

  • Rangemaster11B April 24, 2020, 10:30 am

    Slim has been quarantined TOO long.

  • Martin Messersmith April 24, 2020, 10:16 am

    Everyone is focused on the .40cal, stopping power, could the implant really have deflected the bullet…

    I argue, in the same manner gun grabbers argue we need more gun control based on no valid data, that every woman should be required to get breast implants to make the world safer.

    • Big Dave April 24, 2020, 11:56 am

      I agree. All women should be required to have breast implants. If it only saved one life it would be worth it!

  • Julius Kropok April 24, 2020, 10:09 am

    way to go slim he is a sick puke and a poor excuse of a man or should I say of a human being as a man would not have made a comment like that

  • Justin Thyme April 24, 2020, 9:43 am

    Based on one mortician’s YouTube channel video in which cremation is discussed, when a corpse is subjected to the 1,500-degree Fahrenheit heat, @815-degrees Celsius, all of its organic matter, besides the bones, burn up and disappear. But silicone implants withstand the heat, melting down to a gelatinous goo that cremation technicians then have to scrape off the machinery . Just a little fun fact for y’all.

    • Comanche April 24, 2020, 11:44 am

      What machinery??? nothing in there but burners brickwork and maybe a tray!!!%

  • Billy April 24, 2020, 9:07 am

    Hmmmmm. How to follow that?

  • Doug G Roy April 24, 2020, 9:01 am

    Wow what a great story maybe now I can convince my wife to get some implants like double D.

  • Dr Motown April 24, 2020, 8:40 am

    Can’t wait for the “More proof that .40 cal is obsolete” comments. LOL😁

  • DarthVaderMentor April 24, 2020, 8:23 am

    “The bullet entered the skin on the left side first, and then ricocheted across her sternum into the right breast and broke her rib on the right side,” surgeon Giancarlo McEvenue told CNN. “The implant caused the change in the trajectory of the bullet.”

    Implants are placed outside of the ribcage. The implant did not stop the bullet, but deflected it and slowed it down. When it first entered the body it encountered the implant. The change in density of the liquid the bullet encountered changed the direction of the bullet and slowed in such a way that when it hit the sternum bone it ricocheted to the other side of her chest and stopped at the implant once it had hit bone there and broken the ribcage. I wonder what the left implant looked like. It was probably drained by the over pressure wound channel. That’s maybe why she felt heat, hot silicone fluid hitting her skin. If she didn’t see her shooter, then it must have been quite a distance and the .40 bullet already aerodynamically slowed. I bet if she had been hit by a .357Sig round it would have been a different outcome.

    • Dude April 24, 2020, 12:56 pm

      It was a very close-range shooting as evidenced by the skin burns discussed in the paper (you can read the whole paper since it’s linked in this article). The victim is lying about the events.

  • VA mtn Man April 24, 2020, 8:22 am

    Rule #1 in a mass shooting while unarmed: Take cover behind the woman with the obvious “store boughts”

  • David Kent April 24, 2020, 8:20 am

    So, other than being bigger than her real ones or else she wouldn’t have had them, what about silicone would change a bullet’s trajectory differently than living tissue? I guess next week we’ll hear from an auto mechanic who moonlights as a physics scientist claiming that a rubber boob saved w woman’s life when her airbag failed to deploy. BTW, have you ever tried falling asleep on one of those things? Super uncomfortable compared to the real ones.

    • mike April 24, 2020, 10:06 am

      I would bet that the majority of implants are for reconstruction from a mastectomy and are not necessarily larger but really that is a guess on my part.

      • Plastic Surgeon April 24, 2020, 1:03 pm

        Mike, as an actual plastic surgeon I can tell you that most breast implants are implanted for cosmetic reasons and not for post-mastectomy reconstruction. More than 3 times as many, in fact. Properly and proportionately done, most people would never know a woman had implants.

        • mike April 27, 2020, 9:02 am

          Another bet lost… I guess I was going from my experience in that the only women I “know” who have implants were for the reconstruction type.

    • Comanche April 24, 2020, 11:56 am

      first of all it was an auto mechanic Moonlighting as a physics scientist that stayed at a Holiday Inn last night and there’s plenty of time to sleep after I’m dead🤔🙄😊😄😅😂🤣😉

  • Sac2355 April 24, 2020, 8:00 am

    Let the argument about stopping power commence.

  • Billy April 24, 2020, 7:49 am

    Well, I’m happy for the survivor, but, as a carrier and shooter of 40, I’m quite sure I will hear some bastardized version of this story every time the subject of 40 cal effectiveness comes up for… forever?

  • Dallas April 24, 2020, 7:38 am

    It reads as though she was hit with a ricochet, or a random shot from a good distance. She didnt report hearing a gunshot, only feeling sensations from the bullet’s entry. So I’d say the bullet had lost better than half of its velocity and energy by the time it reached her. It looks relatively intact in the xray provided, so maybe not a ricochet. How else would a smallish (?) bag of gelatin deflect a 40 S&W round? Lucky woman. Id look for a better neighborhood to live, walk or shop in.

    • Dude April 24, 2020, 1:06 pm

      Not a far away shot, but close up. The victim is lying. From the journal article itself:

      “The entry wound demonstrated thermal injury surrounding the bullet hole indicating a close proximity to the discharging firearm.”

  • Leonard April 24, 2020, 4:59 am

    Very hard to believe an implant could deflect a 40 cal.

    • Hubcap April 24, 2020, 7:32 am

      Where are the before and after pictures?

      • Slim April 24, 2020, 8:22 am

        Hey perve… How about get off this site?! Pukes like your are the LOSERS that make GOOD AND RESPONSIBLE gun owners look bad since with your dumb a$$ they think we are just like you and for me and positive so many others they aren’t cool with having a TOTAL PERVE compared to them good NON PERVY people who NEVER want to see some POOR WOMAN’S chest that FYI… is a PRIVATE thing for NORMAL NON PERVES, BUT YOU are the ONLY one who wants to see SHOT up breasts and for WHAT other than the most DISGUSTING PERVERT way of thinking which I ASSUME is the ONLY breasts you could EVER see since for SURE NO REAL LIFE ANY AGE female would EVER let YOUR DIGUSTING PERVY a$$ see their breasts even if you were at Mardi Gras in New Orleans with a MOUNTAIN of beeds NOT ONE woman or last would show YOU a thing since woman EVERYDAY are pestered or worse by LOSERS JUST LIKE YOU and after a LIFE of that BS treatment they KNOW the SICK DIGUSTING TWISTED LOSERS LIKE YOU THAT I WISH I KNEW YOUR REQL NAME AND ADDRESS TO make SURE EVERYONE AROUND YOU KNOWS to help ANYONE FAR, FAR away from YOU! YOUR day is coming through! PEDOPHILES which I KNOW YOU ARE AND OBVIOUSLY A RAPIST IF YOU’VE HAD THE CHANCE OR DREAM OF THE CHANCE and I PRAY you need with a BAD ASS WOMAN like my mom who’d pull her gun I BET you wouldn’t expect her to have and then as she EMPTIES her at LEAST 16 rounds in her pistol into your face and chest I just pray your still alive and so she can drop that empty mag and hammer you with another completely full mag till it’s empty and NOT ONE juror would EVER blame the WOMAN for blowing you into bits since NOBODY OTHER THAN PERVES AND RAPISTS would EVER except your disgusting actions as justifiable in ANY WAY EVER! BE A MAN AND LEAVE YOUR FULL NAME AND ADDRESS SO WE CAN SEND THE FEDS to your house so they can take your computer which I’d bet my life that there’s at LEAST something VERY ILLEGAL in your search history and NASTY sites you went to! I HOPE YOU GET HIT BY A BUS AND THEN BACKED UP OVER AND THEN RERAN OVER WHEN IT TAKES OFF AGAIN!!! I have the closest person in my life which is MY TRUE FAMILY that was RAPED by a COWARDLY PU$$Y a$$ bit¢h so fu for being a cowardly loser like we ALL KNOW YOU ARE! Go take a LONG walk off a SHORT pier! PLEASE FOR ALL THE POOR FEMALES OF ALLLLL AGES to NOT have their lives RUINED BY A PUKE PERVE YOU FACTUALLY WITH ZERO DOUBT YOU ARREE!!!!!

        • Doug April 24, 2020, 9:12 am

          Dude, I’m sorry, but it’s people like you who make gun owners look bad. In the future please learn how to write a coherent comment. Your grammar is worse than the writers on this website. And please learn how to use punctuation for your next attempt.

          • WEDGE April 24, 2020, 2:18 pm

            Hey, hey, hey now. He’s just playing Telly Savalas’ part in “The Dirty Dozen”. Or so we hope.

        • Chief April 24, 2020, 9:22 am

          Seriously Slim??? Wow, get a life man. You’ve obviously got some serious issues, man.

        • Chien Rouge April 24, 2020, 9:33 am

          Quit holding back Slim. Tell us how you really feel.

        • B rad April 24, 2020, 10:27 am

          someone needs to chill out or maybe his comment struck too close to your own mentality, in other words take your rant elsewhere.

        • Comanche April 24, 2020, 12:03 pm

          Wow, somebody needs some time out of mom’s basement!

        • Christopher April 24, 2020, 12:14 pm

          Pics or it didn’t happen!!
          😂🤣

        • Kivaari April 24, 2020, 12:17 pm

          Slim, You need help.

        • Dude April 24, 2020, 12:46 pm

          Slim, you appear to be WAY too unstable to responsibly own or handle a firearm. Please don’t ever carry one.

        • Chris April 24, 2020, 1:55 pm

          Slim you’re the kind of person that people are scared of being able to carry a firearm. If you go off like this over someone’s post I would hate to see what would happen if someone upset you in person. Please get some help before you cause harm to someone for the sake of all responsible gun owners who don’t want to be villanized by something crazy you may do because someone said something that offended you or you didn’t agree with.

        • WEDGE April 24, 2020, 2:14 pm

          Not the type to have with you in a fox hole, I bet. You’ve got serious issues, and I pray for your mental healing through Grace asap.

        • RICK April 25, 2020, 2:05 pm

          Slim’s off his meds again…

        • Hawkeye Pierce May 4, 2020, 3:42 am

          Frank? Is that you?

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