At the end of last week, we covered the tragic case of Rachel O’Reilly who was brutally bludgeoned to death by her husband. Rachel’s injuries were severe – her autopsy results showed that she had been beaten with a heavy object. Her skull was fractured in two places, and she had multiple lacerations on her shoulders, neck and face. Evidence showed that she had been struck somewhere between 6-9 times and that there had been blood in her airways. So, let’s take a look at what this would have meant for Rachel in her final moments.
Context
To bludgeon someone essentially means to hit a person repeatedly with a heavy weapon. It is further defined by saying that there can be blunt force trauma or penetrating trauma.
Blunt force trauma is the forceful impact on the body without penetration of the body’s surface.
Penetrating trauma occurs when an object pierces the skin and enters the body tissue thereby creating an open wound.
Injuries that can be sustained
A hard blow to the head can shake your brain inside the skull causing bruising, broken blood vessels and nerve damage to the brain.
A heavy blow that doesn’t cause bleeding or an opening in the skull could be termed as a closed brain injury.
An open brain injury therefore is when an object penetrates the skull and enters the brain.
Blunt Force Trauma
Blunt force trauma can cause a wide range of injuries including concussions, contusions, abrasions and lacerations, hemorrhages and bone fractures (we saw many of these in Rachel’s autopsy results). The severity of the injuries depends on factors such as the force of the impact, the area of impact and whether the victim has any underlying comorbidities (medical conditions present) at the time of attack.
Several issues can cause death when a person is bludgeoned:
Blood aspiration –blood in the airways causing respiratory distress and obstruction of airways, hypoxemia (low oxygen count in the blood) and blood entering the lungs;
Intracranial hemorrhage - bleeding within the skull including the brain;
Hypovolemic shock – significant blood loss so unable to pump blood to the vital organs;
Fat embolism syndrome – fat particles entering the blood stream and blocking blood flow.
Acute beatings cause severe internal injuries and bleeding.
Blunt force trauma to the head and severe blood loss are the most likely causes of death.
We know that Rachel was severely beaten, that she had two skull fractures and that she had blood in her airways.
Impact on Rachel
From accounts of those who have thankfully survived severe beatings, they describe shock, pain, surprise and a sense of things going dark as well as a potential shock at the blood loss they are suffering.
From what we understand, it seems as though Joe O’Reilly lay in wait in their bedroom and conducted a surprise attack on Rachel as she arrived home after dropping off her boys at school. The attack would have been out of the blue and she would have been in complete and utter shock, especially as the attacker was her husband.
No doubt she would have felt extreme terror as her husband attacked her with heavy dumbbells, trying her best to defend herself but sadly in the end succumbing to the severity of her injuries. She must have been so frightened in those final moments; they would have been so traumatic.
Today we hold space for Rachel and her family together with other victims of severe beatings and bludgeoning.
Sources:
LWW.com
Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery
WebMD
ResearchGate