The shock front of a blast wave is irregular and can be deflected by obstacles in its pathway, depending on their size and position. Consequently, the injurious effects of blast tend to be capricious, and one person may be unharmed while those around him are killed or severely injured.In most explosions solid material is changed suddenly into In considering injuries from different explosions there will be differences in the size of the bombs and in the explosive material used. In any specific explosion there are factors such as the distance of the patient from the bomb, the protection afforded by walls, partitions, or other intervening obstacles, and the direction of the head at the time of the explosion. The greatest problem arises when assessing the distance of the patient from the bomb. Most people are poor at judging distances under ideal circumstances, but when asked to do so in retrospect, following a harrowing experience, they have considerable difficulty and give wildly inaccurate replies.Furthermore, in any such investigation problems arise in deciding who should be included. It is usually impossible to trace those who were nearby but uninjured, so that any survey starts off by being selective. To add to the problems one comes across those who, having heard the explosion, perhaps two blocks away, check their hearing and discover a long-standing deafness of which they had been unaware. Man, by his nature, and the Criminal Injuries (Compensation) Act, by its nature, combine to bring out the malingerer and the deaf of longstanding, who may see a silver lining in the cloud that rises from a distant explosion.It is advisable, therefore, that conclusions should be drawn from a study of a circumscribed group where the distribution of the victims can be established fairly reliably. A particularly tragic explosion fulfilled these criteria and is the subject of a report.'The "Abercorn" Explosion In the late afternoon on the first Saturday in March 1972 a small bomb of approximately 5 lb (2-3 kg) exploded in the crowded Abercorn Restaurant. Two girls were killed, four people lost both legs, one of these also losing an arm, and another girl lost one leg. Three people each lost an eye. In addition other people suffered serious injuries to the head, broken bones, burns, and lacerations.While this was a small bomb, it exploded in a confined space, and most of those in the restaurant were deafened at the time of the explosion. Some could hear nothing at all for many minutes afterwards and described seeing the lips of ambulance men and nurses moving, as in a silent film.Many of those whose ears were affected by the blast have been under review at the E.N.T. departments of the Royal Victoria and Belfast City Hospitals. Many others were traced and all were asked to indicate on a plan of the restaurant where they had been sitting at the time of the explosion. Over 80 persons who were in or just outside the building were traced and their positions determined. This confirmed the problems of establishing the distance from an ...
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