Doctor: Train conductor shot in Illinois has long recovery

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (AP) - A physician says an Amtrak conductor who was shot while standing on the platform of a suburban Chicago train station faces multiple surgeries and months in the hospital before being released.

Dr. David Piazza, Edward Hospital's medical director of trauma surgery, told the Naperville Sun (http://trib.in/2rfauQO) that 45-year-old Michael Case's recovery is expected to last six to nine months.

The bullet went through the Homewood resident's abdomen. Piazza said it penetrated his intestine, including a portion below his stomach.

"The abdomen is packed like a suitcase," he said. "If you decided to shoot a bullet through your suitcase, it would hit your aftershave, your sock, your this or that."

Part of Case's pancreas also was damaged, and his colon has been removed.

"This is a very significant area to be injured," Piazza said. "A lot of things come together at this site, including the contents from the stomach, the bile from the liver and the fluid from the pancreas. Even if you don't eat anything, two to three liters will come through that area through 24 hours so it's a notoriously difficult area to treat."

Piazza said Case remains in critical but stable condition and has been able to consume green gelatin, clear liquids and ginger ale by request.

Seventy-nine-year-old Edward Klein of Wisconsin has been charged with attempted murder in the May 16 shooting in Naperville. A prosecutor quoted Klein as telling investigators: "I had built up all this anger and I blew him away," the Chicago Tribune reported.

Klein is being held at the DuPage County jail and will undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

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Information from: Naperville Sun, http://napervillesun.chicagotribune.com/