The newest partner in our practice (and a guy who's been a friend since college) is an IED survivor. Was in an uparmored Humvee passenger front seat when a remote triggered device went off outside the vehicle. (Later turned out that it was based on 2x240mm HE shells co-detonating). The armor absorbed most of the fragments, but one came up just over the window's lower sill, missed his neck by less than a half inch, and imbedded itself into his helmet without rupturing the helmet itself. It stuck out like a shard of glass till a buddy yanked it out. The liner had a major dent (that ended up causing him unending pain when a well meaning squadmate shoved the helmet back on, which didn't agree with the significant hematoma he was developing.)
The vehicle was totalled, but he was alert and OK at first....just thought he had his bell rung. Within an hour he was unconscious with what turned out to be multiple eggshell crack skull fractures and the same kind of subdural hematoma that killed Natasha Hendridge. Fortunately for him, though, HIS brain bleed stabilized and he didn't need to have his bleed drained surgically. He was off duty with those wounds and with the traumatic brain injury that the shockwave caused -- for over a year. Unlike so many, he was blessed with eventual full recovery...documented by weeks of testing at Walter Reed and at the Cleveland Clinic. He's practicing medicine without problems.
So I'm not watching those roadside booms. Those videos just come a bit too close to home for me; and I'd encourage folks to look at them with a sober, chilling eye. They're not fireworks for fun....they're attempts to kill and wound people in horrible ways.
