The team put Valentine to sleep, then took out the blade. Exploring the wound, they found that the blade went in about three inches in his shoulder and one inch into his neck, injuring his trapezius muscle, sternocleidomastoid muscle and other smaller muscles. But, most importantly, they found that the blade had not damaged his carotid artery.
“If it had gone a centimeter deeper, it would’ve hit. The muscle overlying the carotid was intact. Then we just explored the wound,” Toevs said. “At that point in time, it’s a huge letdown— we were preparing for the absolute worst.”
With the situation stabilized, the surgery then became routine. It took about five minutes to explore the wound to ensure nothing else was injured, then the surgeons cleaned up the blood, dirt and tree particles and closed the wound.
LOL at the surgeon remark in pink. The patient was maybe not so let down!
