ALASKAN MEN ARE REAL MEN … OR MAYBE THEY’RE IDIOTS

Shot in the head, man treats himself with Neosporin for five days before finally going to a hospital

OK, so it was only a .22, but those bullets can kill too. And it takes a real man to do what he did after he shot himself … or just maybe it takes an idiot.

ALASKA MAN, 43, WHO ACCIDENTALLY SHOT HIMSELF IN THE HEAD TREATS THE WOUND WITH OINTMENT
James Doppler of Anchor Point, who shot himself with a .22 on Saturday, used antibiotic cream Neosporin to treat the wound and didn't seek help until Thursday

Associated Press
May 16, 2014

A 43-year-old Anchor Point man is expected to make a full recovery after initially treating a gunshot wound to the head for five days with an antibiotic ointment.

Alaska State Troopers say the gun went off as James Doppler was handling it last weekend.

Troopers say his girlfriend urged him to go the hospital but he refused, believing at the time he didn't need outside help to tend the wound.

However, in the following days, troopers say he began experiencing symptoms associated with a head wound.

'Investigation revealed (the man) had shot himself in the head on (Saturday) while negligently handling a firearm,' AST troopers said in a statement.

'(He) did not seek medical attention until (Thursday).

The gun the man accidentally used on himself was a .22 long rifle.

'He was playing around with it when he shot himself,' AST spokesperson Beth Ipsen told KTUU.

'Nobody else (was) there at the time.'

'No treatment before today other than he put Neosporin on the wounds.'

Agency spokeswoman Beth Ipsen in an email declined to detail the symptoms, because of health privacy laws, but said it was a 'serious, but non-life threatening' wound.

The symptoms prompted him to seek treatment Thursday at the Homer hospital, where troopers took a report.