Around 9 p.m., two men entered and hurdled the counter. While Hoatlin's is an extreme case, a Detroit News analysis of violent injuries treated at local hospitals shows that gunshot wounds account for a disproportionate share of Southeast Michigan's medical bills. Cases like Hoatlin's demonstrate why they were so disproportionately expensive. Detroit's Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan has treated 483 people for spinal cord injuries suffered as a result of violence since 1986. The explanation for the low incidence of gun injuries, doctors said, might be that guns kill many people before they even reach the emergency room door.
Guns are the most common weapon in successful homicides and suicides.
In Michigan, guns were involved in 68 percent of homicides and killings by police and 56 percent of suicides between 1981 and 1998, the last year for which data from the Centers for Disease Control is available. The gunshot that paralyzed Hoatlin nearly killed him as well. When he was shot, the bullet lodged in the vertebrae surrounding his spinal cord. Before he passed out from blood loss, Hoatlin managed to pull a fax machine off the desk. It landed on his chest, breaking two ribs before he could call police.