So I'm in the waiting room at Parkland hospital

[surferdaddy]

I got the message from my frantic wife that my father in law had shot himself in the hand whilst cleaning his 9mm. This just happened so I'm still foggy on the details but he was cleaning either his glock 26 or his sheild 9mm. He finished up and put one in the pipe. He left it on his table and he said, according to my wife, he forgot to clean a certain component. He was struggling to get the slide off and remembered he needed to pull the trigger to field strip the pistol. The 9mm bullet entered his left hand between his middle and ring finger and exited through the heel of his hand. He is getting a bit foggy memory wise these (days he's around 80). Kinda scarey cause it seems to have begun very recently and seems to be getting worse at an alarming rate. The surgeon says he is lucky, no broken bones and limited nerve/ connective tissue damage. He's in the OR right now cause he has an artery bleeding that they are having trouble locating. I don't quite know how to address his (what I believe to be) oncoming dementia and how we will handle him with his firearms. I have noticed he seems to be lacking a bit in safely handling handguns lately. I have children at home and he carries in our house. I support fully his right to carry at any age, however I'm a bit nervous going forward around my children. Don't quite know what to do. My wife is about to go straight up anti gun nutts. This may present problems.

Anyhow, sorry this has turned a bit rant-ish. Guess this is what being stuck in a funky waiting room with a 4 and 7 year old will do to you.

Stay safe all,

Surfer

[philip964]

My grandfather got in a small car accident at 85 and gave the car to a grandkid. I thought that was pretty smart.

[surferdaddy]

I truly have no idea how he will react to this.

[carlson1]

We will be praying for a great outcome.

[surferdaddy]

They got the bleeding stopped and have closed him up. He will be discharged this evening. He will be staying at our casa for a bit. Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers.

[CHLLady]

Thank goodness he is ok! What a scary thing to happen at any age. I'm so glad he's with you and on his way to recovery.
What did they say about the use of his fingers?

[ELB]

Glad the outcome is no worse than it is.

About what to do with your father-in-law, guns, etc, I suggest everybody take a deep breath, let things calm down, and think it through carefully. A lot of bad decisions are made in haste, excitement, and fear. Good luck.

[budroux2w]

Glad the outcome is no worse than it is.

About what to do with your father-in-law, guns, etc, I suggest everybody take a deep breath, let things calm down, and think it through carefully. A lot of bad decisions are made in haste, excitement, and fear. Good luck.

I second every word.

[surferdaddy]

They are optimistic about the use of his fingers, the surgeon seemed to think he may have some numbness in his middle finger but she wasn't sure. I agree about decisions made in haste, this will all be handled in sensitive manner. In the end, the right to defend one's self, with a firearm or a butter knife, is not one in which I or anyone else can restrict in this great land. My father in law will have to make his own decisions regarding this matter. My wife, however, has likely already decided to disallow his carrying in our home.

[SewTexas]

I'm not sure how you can do this....but at BAMC, in San Antonio, there is the Nuero-psychology department, there, they will do what they call "memory tests". Now, what you are looking for, really is two tests, one this year and one in one year, that will give you the amount of...."degeneration", for lack of a better word. But the test this year would give you a decent result because they would compare it to other 80 year old men.

Now, that is BAMC, what your wife needs to do, since she's his daughter, is to talk to his doc and see if he can refer her dad out to someone to do such a test....to at least get a baseline dementia test. Then you will have something to talk with him about. He's not going to talk to you about anything, if he's anything like my father-in-law was, without some type of test results. Also, if there is some dementia, you will want to be able to sit with him and write out a plan, ASAP!!!! please!!!! ask me how I know....I dare you...

[surferdaddy]

A battery of mental tests may be in his future, I'd sure like to see his foggy-ness slow and prove to be merely a symptom of advanced age. I'd sure hate to see the state strip him of his rights; at the same time, we are getting a bit concerned.

[SewTexas]

A battery of mental tests may be in his future, I'd sure like to see his foggy-ness slow and prove to be merely a symptom of advanced age. I'd sure hate to see the state strip him of his rights; at the same time, we are getting a bit concerned.

if you can get a good diagnosis, he can be put on meds that will stop his progression, it won't back up the time line, but it can possibly stop it, or slow it down significantly. Honestly, I don't see why the state would strip him of his rights, however, there might need to be a discussion, like I said. A "Hey, Dad....when would you say is the time for you to stop driving? when would you need to move out of your house? etc." and write it all down, with him. a contract or whatever you want to call it. With my Father-in-Law there would have been no way to have had such a discussion without such testing. With my mother-in-law, well, she had the testing, but the first test revealed mild dementia, and my fil was alive and everything was fine, so we weren't worried, he passed away and she spiraled.....there was no way to have such a discussion. When she was tested the following year she'd progressed significantly, now we're looking at facilities at it hasn't been 2 years since her diagnosis. She's 88. I'm scared to death she's going to hate the idea. But it's the only way to keep her safe, she's going to turn on the stove and gas herself one of these days.

good luck to you, if I can be of any help let me know, I'm around much of the time.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

How about switching out his semi-auto's for a wheelgun or 2?

No tricky takedown on a revolver.

SIA

[Jumping Frog]

... I suggest everybody take a deep breath, let things calm down, and think it through carefully. A lot of bad decisions are made in haste, excitement, and fear. ...

Wish our legislators would take that to heart. A lot of bad legislation is written in just that fashion! (We need to do something!)

[Wodathunkit]

How about switching out his semi-auto's for a wheelgun or 2?

No tricky takedown on a revolver.

SIA

Are you saying if takes less mental capacity to operate a wheel gun? maybe I need one!
This is a pretty good idea in lieu of de-arming him.