Broken ribs on a plane (no, it really doesn't have the same ring)

[melyanna]

I have a character who's shot in the torso, probably with a 9mm. She's wearing body armor of some description, so the shot isn't lethal, but she's going to have a couple broken ribs from the impact

Comments

[perseph]

Broken ribs can puncture a lung.

I remember reading an article about that really happening on a plane. This woman was in some sort of accident - I can't remember what happened - and broke ribs, but she thought they were just badly bruised and she needed to catch a flight, so she didn't get checked out.

Then on the plane she leaned forward or twisted or something and felt a sharp pain in her chest. After that, she started having trouble breathing as air filled up her chest cavity and took up the room her lungs needed to expand in to. Fortunately there were two doctors on board, and they managed to insert a tube into her chest to let the air out, which allowed her to live until they could get her back on the ground and to a hospital.

[perseph]

But that's only something that could happen.. Reading your post again it looks more like you are asking if it is reasonable to assume that she could fly and be okay? I'd assume so, especially if they are only cracked a little.

[melyanna]

Yeah, at this point it's a matter of cost-benefit ratios. She'll know she's at least cracked some ribs, so her choice more or less boils down to which is the lesser of two evils, flying with her injuries or driving for more than twelve hours. She... will probably choose flying.

Thanks for the help!

[nicked_metal]

I don't know if anybody cares, but what you've described there is called a 'tension pneumothorax'. The cause of it would have been the movement driving a bone shard making a hole in the outer pleural wall. So the risk has more to do with 'untreated rib injury' than 'flying'.

I'm no surgeon, but if I was in that situation, I'd want to get to hospital as fast as I could with a minimum of movement - I'd much rather be sitting on a plane and being careful not to lean over than trying to drive.

[lilacsigil]

If her ribs are broken, they might pierce her lung and this is dangerous on a plane because of the pressure changes. The body armour, however, makes it more likely that she will have several cracked ribs rather than broken bones. As long as there are no pointy bits of bone around, she should be fine.

She could easily check this out if she has access to an X-Ray machine before taking her flight.

[melyanna]

Yeah, it was the pressure changes that had me concerned. Glad I asked now.

Sadly, no access to an X-ray machine, but I think she's had enough cracked and broken ribs over the course of her career to know something's wrong. It's just a matter of whether or not she's willing to take the risk.

[nicked_metal]

If her ribs are broken, they might pierce her lung and this is dangerous on a plane because of the pressure changes.

It'd be just as dangerous when not on a plane, wouldn't it?

[sandwichwarrior]

Depends on the nature ofv the break, as long as there are no pointy chunks of bone floating around in her chest cavity the chances of "complications" is pretty darn low. The Armor would've absorbed the brunt of the impact so chances are she'd be fine.

PS. An embolism is a pressure related injury and would not have any effect on a broken rib unless it was accompanied by a open chest wound.

[melyanna]

Yeah, I knew an embolism was something else, but I just wanted to demonstrate that the extent of my knowledge concerning airplanes and injuries is... rather limited. ;)

Thanks for your answer! Haven't decided how this is going to go, but this is definitely good to know.

[witchofnovember]

actually an embolism is a stopped up blood vessel as a result of something floating in the blood. A Pulminary embolus is an air bubble, a fat embolus is a clump of fat cells that have entered the blood stream. Or it could be a blood clot broken off of a thrombus...
What they worry about on long flights are deep vein thrombus that breaks free and causes a stroke or heart attack.
My Mom had a DVT and making sure that the clot was dissolved slowly was a big issue.

[pherring]

A 9mm isn't going to have that much of an inpact. Add a decent set of body armor in and you may just end up with a bruise. You may with to amp up the fire power a bit and go with somethink more along the lines of a .38.