In the ICD-9 book used for coding medical diagnoses, terrorism is code E979: Injuries resulting from the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population or any segment thereof.
Aircraft used as a weapon
aircraft burned
exploded
shot down
crushed by falling aircraft
munitions not otherwise specified
burning building or structure:
collapse of
fall from
hit by falling object
in jump from
conflagration
fire causing:
asphyxia
burns
melting of fittings and furniture
smoldering building or structure
fragments from:
That’s what I did for months after— blessed the body parts. The beautiful body parts.
Artillery shell
bomb grenade
guided missile
land-mine
rocket shell
shrapnel
machine gun
carbine
blast effect
fireball effect
gases, fumes, chemicals
unspecified vapors:
There were so many of them, so many hands. I imagined them moving.
Analgesics, barbiturates
direct and secondary effects
hypnotics
sedatives, tranquilizers
other medicinal substances
corrosive and caustic:
handgun
shotgun
military firearm
other unspecified
explosives
accidentally or purposely
inflicted:
I imagined them moving— you know, the fingers. In my mind’s eye I could see them, opening.
Cortney Davis is a nurse practitioner, author of three poetry collections, most recently Leopold's Maneuvers, winner of the Prairie Schooner Poetry Prize and co-editor of two anthologies of poetry and prose by nurses from University of Iowa Press, Between the Heartbeats and Intensive Care. Her collection of essays about the art of nursing, Letters to a Young Nurse, is forthcoming from Kent State University Press.
