Abdominal GSW & Peritonitis; Christian/Hindu marriage & gotra/kuli; UK&US medical residencies

[hineas_estel]

I have three completely unrelated questions for fanfiction purposes that I hope someone can give me an answer to :)

Comments

[hineas_estel]

You're not too late at all, anon :) Thank you for your reply!

My problem is mainly that I can't find a general overview over what kind of symptoms develop at what point in time. I realize this is because it depends on the patient, as every case is different. Going to the hospital immediately being the only sensible medical advise obviously plays into it too.

As a result, the timeline above is purely based on forum discussions. Which you've now confirmed as speculation. So yay!

I didn't want to be that writer that shoots a character in the abdomen and then let's them miraculously walk away from it. But if that's the most plausible option, I'm willing to go with that. I've obviously grown attached to the original set-up, though, so if you were able to answer two more questions, that'd be amazing :)

As stated, I only need the character to survive for around 25 hours, so I guess what it comes down to is a) could you survive that long if internal organs were injured? And b) if you can, what kind of symptoms / complications would develop when?

[hineas_estel]

25 hours? Hmm, well, the colon would bleed less than other organs, and the bullet may not have hit any arteries, but even so, that may be a stretch. For penetrating trauma to the colon, I think his symptoms would pretty much run the gamut: severe pain, tenderness, distention and after some hours, fever, lack of appetite, nausea and vomiting, thirst, fatigue, chills, shivering, rapid breathing, confusion, dizziness, weakness, unconsciousness. He may be hot to the touch. When he starts getting cold, he's reaching a dangerous point. You mentioned you wanted some dramatic events, so organ failure is a big risk of sepsis. This can also crop up even after they've stitched up his abdominal wound and he's recovering. If other organs are failing, he may go into a coma or require life support.