Setting: Present-day, a healthy man in his mid-thirties is running and hit from behind by ammo from a shotgun. The wound is in the left side area
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Due to LJ's comment character length restriictions, this is 1 of 2. Former paramedic here. I have seen shotgun wounds at various distances. First some mechanics: how much damage an object does, when fired from a given firearm, depends on how fast it's propelled, its mass (basically, how much it weighs and how dense it is), and how far it has to go before hitting the target. Single objects (e.g. a bullet, or "slug") will retain their speed longer because the slow-down caused by the friction of air is proportional to the total surface area--and they have less surface area. Multiple objects (like the "shot" in a typical shotgun shell) slow down faster because there's more surface area (for friction to affect) per unit of mass
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Thank you so much! That is very informative. It sounds like the wound probably could be as serious as portrayed in the episode. I'll have to think some more about how to handle it in detail if I want to get more in-depth about it than I have in the past three years.
I've never watched the show you referenced, so can't comment directly on that. If you're going to be writing (fiction or nonfiction) that involves serious bodily harm, some background is very helpful...but anyone can begin collecting an expert panel for medical, firearms, etc. advice for a given piece of work. Ideally you talk to an active or recently retired EMT/Paramedic (civilian or military) and a good ER nurse and doctor. Tell them you don't want to make stupid mistakes, and ask if they'll vet your mechanism of injury (they won't have time for a whole book.) Movies and TV often get it wrong for reasons of time, money (it costs more to do it right), and dramatic impact. They're not a teaching tool. They aren't supposed to be. Even as a kid I knew that Roy Rogers didn't have the equivalent of a roll of caps in his revolver, so beyond six (or twelve if he used both) it was all Hollywood. Writers of stories/books should do better, because the audience isn't distracted by the sights and sounds of the action
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