Correct me if getting this wrong.
Whether the bullet entered from the front, (a shot from the picket fence IMO) or from the rear the damage caused to the
brachial plexus nerve(s) would/could have caused JFK arms into the position they are in after he is struck? I'm not understanding how damage to nerve(s) that control the shoulder, arms & hands would force JFK's upper body forward in about a third of a second via Z228 - Z336.
"The minimum time for a neurological reaction to an external stimulus is 200 milliseconds, or between three and four frames of the Zapruder film."
Could an external stimulas of say a bullet to the back at between Z224 - Z225 have caused JFK to lurch forward so quickly? The stimulas that caused his arm movement would have been earlier based on his reactions as he emerged from behind the Stemmons sign? Z221 - Z222.
Gary, good question(s), thanks for asking. I think they may be more difficult to answer than what they initially seem, but I’ll at least try to provide my impressions on how these might be answered.
First let me condense the questions and if I miss any of your points of concern, let me know.
1. Could a shot from the front cause the unusual neck, shoulders, arms, and hands/fingers reactions that are seen?
2. How could this relate to some apparent upper body forward motion around z228-z236
(I assumed z336 was a typo so used z236), and if the main muscle reactions of shoulders thru fingers were caused by a frontal shot at z221-z222, could a different back shot at z224-z225 cause some forward motion at z228-z236?
To discuss a couple of these questions, it might help if I shared a little more background on what I was doing and some other stuff I found on this.
My intent in all this was to better understand JFK’s posturing and find an updated medical description with a mechanistic explanation of the apparent stiffening reactions that were observed. I felt like there might be more information available now-a-days that describe this better than it was few a decades ago. When I saw the visual depictions of some patients with spastic paralysis that appeared to be so close to JFK’s presentation, that is when I adopted the term. Looking back on my notes I saw the following related items:
- Spasticity is related to muscle stiffening and the stiffening can be facilitated via a stretch reflex in a traumatized spinal cord.
- Spasticity can begin suddenly or gradually and is often not seen immediately after an injury.
So it appears that many cases apparently do develop over time, and perhaps Thorburn would fall under this classification (although a Dr. Artwohl was not convinced).
Additionally, I did find earlier discussion related to this and it tended to focus on brachial plexus trauma more so than trauma a little bit further upstream in the spinal cord. There was some earlier discussion in the mid 70’s about JFK’s unusual stiffening after the second shot when ITEK reported on his general motion and commented that he appeared to remain in a frozen position leading up to z312. In the mid 90’s there was some commentary from doctors that focused on effect to the brachial plexus. I think their knowledge and insight is applicable here, but it also seems there is a good chance that if a lower cervical vertebra wing process was indirectly pushed or even slightly physically grazed by a bullet passing, there would be tremendous torque/twisting on the spinal cord in that area which could contribute to cord damage and have effects bilaterally (effects on both left and right sides).
The following references were from Dr. Artwohl and Dr. Strully.
Comments from Dr. Artwohl
“JFK was not exhibiting a Thorburn response. He was exhibiting an immediate response to the bullet passing through the base of his right neck. It sort of looks like a Thorburn’s position, but it is not a truly what Thorburn was describing, which is a much-delayed reaction (days to months) following a low cervical cord transection.”
“JFK’s reaction to the neck wound was, for all intents and purposes, instantaneous to the hit at Z-223/224. As the bullet passed through his neck, the pressure cavity caused an immediate and wide spread stimulation of all the nerves in the immediate vicinity, that is of the brachial plexus, the large group of nerves that emerge from C5-T1. These are the nerves that supply motor function to the arms.”
Comments from neurologist Dr. Strully, dated April 9, 1994.
"Before all else, it is necessary to remember that this assassination reveals a sequence of neural responses initiated in the neck by the shock wave and cavitation induced by the bullet in its traverse of the neck. This traumatized all structures in a 6 inch radius in all directions from the path of passage through the neck. This spread of forces occurred in a fraction of a second, traumatizing all neural structures in the immediate vicinity within a fraction of a second as determined by the speed of the missile according to ballistic studies.
As a result, contraction of the muscles innervated by nerves closest to the bullet's path took place first; -- right deltoid, left deltoid, right biceps followed by the left biceps and sequential contraction of all muscles in the forearms, hands, chest, abdominal walls and paraspinal muscle groups, with muscles in the lower extremities, farthest from the shock wave, responding last. All neural structures in the neck were stimulated at the same moment but the distance an impulse had to travel to cause muscle contractions in the hamstrings and gluteal muscles was greater, thus the motor responses in these muscles occurred much later."
[...]
"All movements seen in the films, occurring relative to the bullet's passage, were involuntary; lifting of the shoulders was a result of contraction of the deltoids followed by contraction of the biceps muscles which flexed the upper extremities at the elbows, then forearm and intrinsic muscles of the hands causing clenching of the hands."
You can see that the neck area and brachial plexus are focused on in these doctor discussions but Dr. Strully also alludes to the possibility of muscles reacting further down the body in the chest, abdominal walls, and possibly the lower extremities.
With all this background I would answer your questions as best I can as follows:
1) If the trajectory of a bullet passing through the neck from the front or back was in the correct orientation to penetrate and pass right by or graze the brachial plexus or lower cervical spinal region, I would expect that similar effects could occur.
2) If Dr. Strully is correct that additional cavitation effects can have an impact on nerves innervating muscles below the neck and shoulder area, and into the upper torso and abdomen, this could account for additional muscle reactions and some general body forward reaction movement forward immediately following the initial arm reactions.
If you prefer to go with a back impact second bullet explanation, there would probably need be a second bullet hole in the back, presumably an entrance (no exit hole from this bullet in the front since the single hole in front is speculated to be a different bullet entering the front of the neck and exiting the back of the neck which caused the arm reactions), then I suppose you could argue a second shot in the back pushed him forward. It probably would have to be a softpoint that mushroomed at strike to transmit a lot of momentum going into the back and push him forward. In this case since it didn’t front exit you would look for a second hole in the back side and a remnant mushroomed bullet that ended up in the chest cavity.
The neuromuscular reactions are complex, and if there is a better medical term or nomenclature for the effects seen here I would be glad to adopt it. It just seems that spastic paralysis, which could include spinal cord and brachial plexus effects, is a closely related term and I think better than Thorburn.
