Fatal Gunshot Wound to the Head?
Before anyone throws accusations about suicidal or murderous tendencies, this is for the sake of writing, not for the sake of death. Lol. Anyway. I wanted others' opinion/knowledge as help here. For a character's death, I'd planned on a gunshot wound to the back of the head, basically right in the 'soft spot' where the head and neck meet. I'd wondered if anyone had an idea of the best angle for the shot to travel, to ensure that the wound IS fatal. I know that death isn't exactly instantaneous when you have a gunshot to the head, but I'm looking for something within the window of a few minutes. Five or so at most, if possible. Any ideas?
I’m an author. There’s a scene in my book where a character gets shot in the gut and his friend treats the wound. How should his friend properly do this with very limited supplies and no hospital? The guy was shot by an assault rifle (AR15 or M4).
To be honesty, your character doesn’t, the friend dies, horribly.The 5.56 NATO round yaws massively and tumbles once it’s within soft tissue, following an unpredictable path, tearing up tissue until friction slows it to a stop. Worse, it fragments along the way, leaving multiple chunks to move along, tearing things up, but thankfully slowing down faster, due to a lower mass.In the gut is essentially in the the lower abdomen, where intestines and some really important things live, the stomach, where acid and dragons await and overall, rupturing intestines or stomach isn’t a good thing to have without a trauma center right next door.The stomach and acid and enzymes begin to digest the contents of the abdomen, quite efficiently and painfully.The intestines, bacteria and partially digested or fully digested food goes into the abdomen, along with bacteria and fungi that help us digest food and process nutrients, the abdominal contents now get digested by them, see painful death above.If magic happens and that’s really what’ll be needed, everything important was missed, then if no major artery and a few come to mind is hit, a simple patch the wound, suture major wound openings, mesentery, muscle, fascia and skin, sanitizing the wound and some antibiotics to prevent infection would do the trick.I estimate the chances of that to be one in three. Slim chance, fat chance and no chance.Getting shot by a 5.56mm NATO round “in the gut” and you don’t require a major trauma center’s attention, it’s as bad a trope as Hollywood’s insistence on removing a bullet that’s not sitting against and damaging something important, but is oddly quite intact, so unable to cause significant cutting damage by just being left sitting like one should leave any sleeping dog lay.That’s my and far too many military medics and military physicians experience.The round was chosen for a reason, small, light, yaws unpredictably, causing significant, immobilizing harm to an enemy combatant.
I'm writing a story where a character gets shot. Recently a friend of my sister's suggested he gets shot in the shoulder with a small hand gun but I was thinking the kneecaps, so he will be down for the count. What would be the consequences?
Movies give us all the illusion that a shot in the shoulder is a flesh wound and if you get kneecapped, you just need a crutch and you can hobble on.no.If you get shot, it's time for bed. You are definitely down for the count. And small caliber bullets are actually worse. They may not be able to punch straight through you... But on the other hand, they can't punch straight through you. The round shatters and tumbles and bounces around and does all kinds of mean, nasty, ugly things to a person's insides.Speaking of, here's the circulatory layout of the shoulder.That big red bastard is called the axillary artery, which becomes the Brachial artery as it traverses down the arm. It is a major blood vessel. Severing this artery would be... bad. Like, "minutes to live" bad. You may also note that the shoulder's geometry is not really conducive to a tourniquet.Riddle me this, Batman: where do you apply pressure to stop the bleeding?Shoulder wounds are bad freaking news.
I'm writing a book, and my main character was shot in the shoulder. How would she deal with this without medical attention? She is a highly trained assassin, so it would make sense for her to know how to deal with it.
If the bullet just grazed her, she would be more likely to be able to deal with it herself. If it hit a bone, did extensive damage to muscles, or remained inside her, she would have major difficulties functioning even with proper medical care. Shoulder injuries are more painful than one might think--even riding on a bumpy road is incredibly painful. Also, you can't let her have much bleeding because she would need IV fluid replacement, pressure dressings and maybe surgery to tie off bleeders--all things she could not believably accomplish on her own. That being said, she could have medical supplies (antibiotics,pain medication, bandages, a sling) with her. She would need to immobilize the arm for a good while--it would likely be painful enough to hinder her actions if she tried to use it. She would need to clean the wound thoroughly and bandage it right away, plus keep it clean and change the dressings at fairly frequent intervals. It would not be easy to do these things one-handed and in pain. The pain medicines would need to be more than just over-the-counter pills--they would need to be strong enough that they would likely make her drowsy. So, keep in mind that she would be either drowsy from the pain meds or in a lot of pain. Maybe she could have pre-arranged medical help? Or at least have some place where she could lay up for a while?
Do gunshot wounds require stitches?
Go ahead. It's such a convention in fiction that it's actually trite. And the only people who'll laugh at the idea will be emergency physicians and surgeons. In reality, the shoulder's a terrible place to be shot, if your hero's not going to be permanently disabled. There are too many important structures and not many places a bullet can go without hitting one of them. Also, stitching the holes closed would almost certainly do more harm than good. As a matter of fact, almost all cuts "need" stitches only for cosmetic reasons, balancing the size of the scar and length of time to healing against the increased risk of infection. Wounds left open to drain are less likely to become infected, large wounds are often best closed only after several days, and small ones needn't be closed at all.
I'm writing a short story and one of my characters gets shot in the back. I don't want my character to be paralyzed. What do I have to look out for?
Have you character wear a backpack at the timeHave the bullet richochet and hit him at an angleHave the bullet a high velocity one that will go straight through his body without doing much harmHave a low velocity bullet (.22 pistol) shot from a distance so it has little effectAs you don't mention being shot by a gun, then an arrow or bolt might do less damageAnd if the worst comes to the worst, take ten seconds to look up 'gunshot wounds to the back' gunshot wounds to the back as I have done, and would be the first thing I would do if I was writing a story
Terminal Ballistics: If a handgun bullet is shot from about 5 meters away, and it hits you in your shoulder socket, will the bullet tear right through your shoulder, or will it stay stuck inside?
Which shoulder socket?Many bullets have been known to tumble when they strike bone, so if the person is shot in the left shoulder socket there's very good chance that the bullet could ricochet inside of their body and perforate their heart and the major blood vessels feeding into, and out of, it. This will cause the person to die without immediate medical assistance.If the person is struck in the right shoulder, the bullet could tear into the right lung, causing it to collapse. Or it could come out of their neck, tearing either the jugular vein or the carotid arteries on its way out. These are also life-threatening emergencies which require immediate medical attention.Basically, almost ANY bullet wound can kill; either outright or through infection later. So if your character is shot and there's no one around to help him/her, the possibilty that they could die is very high. A few who get shot and don't receive medical treatment never have problems. But those are so rare that they are barely worth mentioning.
Wound enhancing effects of bone fragmentation?
Does anyone know of an article that explains how fragmentation of bone can enhance the severity of gunshot injuries? If not an article, do you have any knowledge personally? I don't hunt, so I have no experience with gunshot wounds other than experiments I have done with ballistics gelatin. I am just looking for a good science fair project idea for next year and just wanted to see what has been done on this topic already. Thanks.
How to survive a bullet wound without proper medical attention?
Hmm. Interesting question. The only problem I see is the probability. So the shot went straight through him, maneuvering between a rib and clavicle and hit no arteries or veins or nerves AND didn't puncture his lung? What did it hit then, honestly? Only muscles? It should have passed over the clavicle and tore the deltoid muscle (or the scalenes/trapezoid) then but that is a graze, nothing more. If he was in fact shot through his chest, he would seriously need a doctor to survive in my opinion. If the bullet caught on the clavicle and changed direction upwards, he would be able to survive without a doctor, even if the bone crack would have hurt like hell and he would probably have trouble with the muscles it hurt on its way, not being able to lift his arm/reach out forward or tilting his head sideways and head movements. Anyways, the muscles may not heal right without a doctor and he would have malfunctions later on.