VCU news

By Pamela DiSalvo Lepley

RICHMOND, Va. – A 37-year-old man shot at an Ashland, Va. restaurant in a weekend sniper attack was in stable but critical condition Monday at the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System’s MCV Hospitals.

Dr. Rao R. Ivatury, director of trauma, critical care and emergency surgery at MCV Hospitals, told a 2:30 p.m. news conference that the man, whose identity is being withheld, could open his eyes.  Dr. Ivatury said the man couldn’t talk because of a breathing tube that likely will remain in place for a week.

He described the man as very strong and said he was about 6 feet tall and 200 pounds.

The man was brought to MCV Hospitals about 8:30 p.m. Saturday after being shot in the upper abdomen. He underwent three hours of emergency surgery in which doctors removed his spleen, the left half of his pancreas and two thirds of his stomach.  In a second operation Sunday night, surgeons reconnected his injured stomach and intestines and cleaned the wounds. They also removed a bullet and turned it over to law enforcement authorities.

Ivatury said three or four more operations would be required over the next several weeks to close the abdominal wall and repair other damage from the gunshot.