How Sherlock Survived a Cardiac Arrest

[wellingtongoose]

The Most Miraculous Thing

The medical explanation I am about to give for Sherlock’s survival is nowhere near as uplifting or exhilaration as watching Sherlock struggling out the steps of his mind palace with the sheer determination to live for John. If you want to keep thinking about Sherlock’s “revival” as a miracle of love and a testimony to our

Comments

[grypas]

Thank you for your meta on the subject. I was more than curious about the whole aspect of his injury.

What about rehabilitation? Did he spend weeks in the hospital? When at home would Sherlock need assistance and monitoring in everyday basis? (Insert Wiggins and Sherlock's "day job" comment, unless it's the drug den that Wiggins is monitoring and not Sherlock)

It's Christmas and his mother says: "We are here because Sherlock is home from hospital and we are all very happy." I might not interpreting it correctly but wedding in August, shot in September and well Christmas... (IF we use John's blog entries as points of reference)
Well, English isn't my mother tongue so I'm probably reading it wrong and the phrase "home from hospital" doesn't mean that someone just got out of hospital. Or maybe I'm biased because I would focus on the fact that he has healed and is healthy and I would "delete" and ban any hospital related conversations.

Wedding date

[ruahnna]

Unless I missed something, or something changed, Mary told Mrs. Hudson at the end of The Empty Hearse that they were thinking of a May wedding, not an August one. Given that Mary is preggers at the wedding itself, I presume she is ready to pop at Christmas. (Still praying for a safe delivery and a bouncing baby Watson--I don't think I can bear for John to undergo that sort of loss

Re: Wedding date

[wellingtongoose]

The timeline really confuses me to no end. I think I gave up trying to wrap my head around it. The truth is I'm not completely sure that the writers have actually plotted out the timeline in any great deals. They do have a vague idea so that the characters can talk about their own space-time continuum without contradicting each other. However I find it terribly difficult to pin-point stuff but the speculation was fun to read.

Re: Wedding date

[swanpride]

It depends on the writer...Thompson is very malicious. TBB for all it's fault is so precise, even the weekdays match up with the dates given. Gatiss is the worst of the three...I have tried to line-up The Great Game, and nothing matches up time-wise, he jumps from day to night with no rhyme or reason. It's fortunate that HOB and TEH happen in two days respectively.
Moffat loves this long time jumps - which currently jumped so far ahead that the show is now playing in the future (around next Christmas) - this has the advantage that they can easily pick up where they left off after the hiatus.

Re: Wedding date

[grypas]

This is more than likely a moot point, as the post and responses are from February...but, just in case, and if there's still questions surrounding the timeline: The wedding took place on May 18th, per the invitation, which was shown when the Sherlock was remembering no one knew John's middle name (other than Irene), but that it was on the invitation

[wellingtongoose]

I think that it could mean Sherlock recently got out of hospital. There are a variety of different long term consequences of being shot in the liver. The most common is infection. Bullet wounds are very efficient at creating liver abscesses (you can get a trail of them all along the bullet tract) and they are very hard to treat because they need nasty IV antibiotics, thus Sherlock has to stay in hospital for his treatment. I don't find it unbelievable that Sherlock spent months in hospital.

[grypas]

Thank you for your answer. I can't stress enough what a hurt/comfort junkie I am. Now I'm craving for stories that deal with the hospital stay and recovery.

On a real life note I always like to verify medical facts but since my brother's death, the doctors I help with their researches are reluctant and suspicious when I ask. I remember the concern in the eyes of the one I asked about the mortality rate of a fall from a 70 foot building... and his "why do you ask? Do you need to talk? I'm here to help" and me mortified trying to convince him that I'm not suicidal (I didn't dare to tell them that it's just for a TV show)

As it happens I work with a very kind thoracic surgeon this year. BUT there is no way I will ask for his professional opinion without him offering to help and refer the patient to one of the best he knows. What would I say to that?

So I'm afraid that you're going to bear the brunt of my questions. Feel free to ignore me any time. I'll try to keep my questions to the minimum.(:

[wellingtongoose]

Hi! I am always happy to answer your questions. Please keep asking :)

I got really odd looks from psychiatrists when I first asked them: "does Sherlock have autism?". Initially they thought I was trying diagnose myself by watching Sherlock. I think doctors can be a bit too suspicious sometimes as a lot of the time our patients don't just blurt out what all their problems are because it very hard to open yourself up entirely to a stranger, and so we are always a bit paranoid we will miss some kind of cue to talk the patient's real problems.

[grypas]

Thank you :)

It's good to be able to talk about the doctor's side of "caring" for a patient.

[grypas]

Had some quiet time and did a little research. According to this article:
* When not diagnosed early and treated promptly, pyogenic liver abscess can be fatal, with reported mortality rates as high as 80%-100%.
* Six weeks of antibiotics.
* Drainage.
* Pain, fever.
Loooong hospital stay.

It's the fanfic author's heaven.

I'm still trying to interpret Sherlock's comment about Wiggins: "He’ll monitor their recovery. It’s more or less his day job." I prefer to think that he monitored Sherlock's recovery at home. He might as well be an excellent chemist (whatever this implies). OR he was keeping an eye on everyone in the drug den.
ACD Holmes was fond of Billy the page. He worked for him and kept him company when Watson wasn't living with him anymore.
From Watson's POV:
"Finally, his eyes came round to the fresh and smiling face of Billy, the young but very wise and tactful page, who had helped a little to fill up the gap of loneliness and isolation which surrounded the saturnine figure of the great detective." MAZA

[wellingtongoose]

Well, in most parts of the UK there is a service for people on long term IV antibiotics which allows them to have their antibiotics at home supervised by a registered nurse. There are some restrictions such as the drug dosing has to be once a day or max twice a day and the person has to live within a certain radius of the hospital. So I think Wiggins could have monitored Sherlock's recovery from home.

I doubt Sherlock was being treated by just Wiggins because its very hard to get hold of antibiotics without a prescription, and that's just the oral kind. High street pharmacists don't stock IV antibiotics, only hospitals do. However there might be a really good fanfiction premise for Wiggins raiding the drug cupboards of Bart's Hospital for antibiotics (and a bit of morphine on the side).