Hiding Ribs/Liver Injury

[saba1212]

Hello, it's my first time here & I think I’m so lucky to find this community, it’s very useful & I could get a lot of information I needed in various topics. But I still have some questions that I couldn’t find an answer for it

Comments

[lilacsigil]

If you lacerate the liver and don't get medical help soon, your guy will bleed to death internally. A broken rib or bruising to the liver along with a cut should be enough to leave him in serious pain.

He should have 24-48 hours before the wound starts to feel tight and hot and goes red with streaks outwards, then another 24-48 hours where it's producing yellow pus and also spreading to his bloodstream and he'll feel weak, nauseous and feverish and collapse towards the end of this stage from fever. He needs antibiotics, preferably ones active against staph, so if your nurse has those he can recover completely within a few days, if not, he'll probably die.

The cut itself should heal relatively quickly if he's otherwise in good health. Broken ribs can go on for months, especially if he aggravates them by not resting.

[saba1212]

Thank you very very much for your reply :)
Ok, so the idea of lacerating the liver is cancelled since he can't get any proper medical care soon.
You said he'll need 24-48 hours for the read streaks & another 24-48 hours for the other symptoms, this period of time is too long for my storyline. Is there any elements can make these symptoms appear faster (in a matter of 16-18 hours maybe)??

[lilacsigil]

Sure! If he gets a puncture wound and foreign material (such as a bit of his clothing or a bit of metal) and all the dirt on it goes deeper into his body, he can start getting seriously ill in about 12 hours. He still won't likely die for another 48 hours or so (since it takes time for the blood to circulate the bacteria through the body) but he'll be fevered and feeling pretty awful and fainting is likely.

So he may have a larger visible wound that he stitches, plus a puncture wound (from a small flying piece of shrapnel shaped like a nail) that is the real danger.

[saba1212]

Awesome! That seems more effective for the storyline. Thank you very much for your replies I really appreciate it :)

[anonymous]

1. A bleeding liver is seriously bad news and often requires emergency surgery to fix; I'd avoid it if you don't want him to die. Broken ribs or a bruised kidney are both very painful, and much less lethal. As far as bleeding goes, you might want to go with a nick in one of the costal arteries (the little ones running along the bottom of each rib). Your character would lose a lot of blood, but not so much that he'd be dead within minutes. Assuming he can get to a safe place quickly (I'd say 15-20 minutes at the outside, though quicker is obviously better), he should be able to stop the bleeding himself with direct pressure before it becomes life-threatening

[saba1212]

That was AMAZING! Thanks so much for all the information :)
But still, the 24-48 hours period of time is too long for my storyline, is there any elements that with them I can shorten this time?

[anonymous]

Well, as I said, sepsis can set in and kill very quickly, but it's unlikely that he would reach the point of collapse in under 24 hours. You could have him collapse from exhaustion/weakness and shock after the initial blood loss, though. The average adult has roughly 5 liters of blood; someone bleeding from a costal artery could lose about 30% of that in half an hour. That's plenty for hypovolemic shock and falling-down-exhaustion (as a point of reference, 1.5 L is about 3 times what you give when you donate blood). Even if he goes somewhere safe and gets the bleeding stopped, 30% blood loss will have him stumbling around weak and sick and uncoordinated until that blood volume gets replenished, and he could easily stand up too fast/jostle a broken rib/etc and faint. Then when he goes to the nurse she might discover the beginnings of an infection in his wound.

[saba1212]

Great! That was very helpful, thank you very very much for your replies.

[syntinen_laulu]

The most important question is, what do you want to happen to him

[saba1212]

Thanks so much for your reply, I actually did more researches after I read it & now I'm very convinced: No hitting liver for MC.
Your second point seems more plausible, since I'm not looking for a big enjury with long term effects, I'm looking for an injury that looks a REAAALY bad one but it can be treated. So thanks for the info :)