Injury Assessment Thread

Is there a thread for those trying to write realistic injuries, prognoses, and treatments?

I find it really awkward to ask "I'm writing a character who suffers a head injury and loses consciousness, can someone explain to me how best to go about this?" each time in the Questions thread.

So, if you're writing a scene and don't know how to portray an injury realistically, ask here? Don't ask me, I 'dunno, I'll be using this thread too if there isn't already a specific one, I'm sure someone will come along. I figured the "Medical" thread could work, but that seems less devoted to analyzing/writing specific injuries, incidents, and traumas.

edited 1st Jun '14 8:48:52 AM by FOFD

A character in my work is stabbed with a sharp blade in the lower chest, around the left bottom of the ribcage, the injury is surprisingly shallow, but how much damage would it have done?

Keep in mind that the character isn't human, and his species has a mild Healing Factor.

I'm not an expert but let's take a stab at it.

As well as the obvious cut and laceration if it is deep enough it could damage the kidneys, probably not deep enough to harm the ribs but one thing that may be neglected with knife attacks is there would be a certain amount of blunt trauma as well. We are talking a sharp object but don't forget that the object is being thrust with a degree of force the same as a bludgeon. I'd say a bruise, depending on the force maybe bruised ribs, are we talking a hard strike but not deep, the knife cuts along the side or by the point? I'd say it would cut muscle or fat depending on the person, maybe even the stomach depending on the depth and angle of attack.

If I were a medical expert which I certainly don't claim then I would err on the side of caution and look at all the potential damage such an attack would cause. To best answer your question I would imagine exactly how the attack would occur. Say a kitchen knife ten inches, straight edge rather than serrated, standard weight for the type of knife, certainly sharp enough to do the job (one of those proper specialty knives where a mishap would lose you a finger rather than break the skin,) wielded by an able bodied person, average strength and skill, strikes the side at stomach level with the typical force of an able bodied person, near dead on to the side of the body, using the side of the knife rather than the point, just to give one example of how such a scenario might play out. From there you can take a reasonable guess as to what the possible injuries would be and react accordingly.

Ah, thank you! That is a great help! I definitely get a sense of what his injuries would be from the information.

One more thing, depending on the depth and angle of the attack were it serious enough it could pierce the stomach and the stomach acids would ensure a slow and very painful death. If you read Rainbow Six a sniper does such a thing as revenge on a terrorist murdering a little girl. From your description, not deep and more to the side it's unlikely, but maybe something to think about.

I'm thinking of what an Alloy Cannon might do to to a human with a shot to the chest (lung/heart area). While the in-game research project suggests that overpenetration is inevitable, what damage would it do on the way? And how much of a mess would it cause (planning on having a confused coroner/people witnessing the shot faint in terror)?

I'm going to assume that the Alloy Cannon fires flechettes for the purposes of the work.

edited 5th Jun '14 2:43:20 AM by Krieger22

It's certainly interesting to think about, but it is a little too gruesome for my tastes.

I'm a little surprised this thread isn't used more often.