Would skin heal first: Wound healing after perforating stab wound?

[creativityspren]

Hi all

Comments

[lilacsigil]

I'm presuming there's magic or something going on in your canon, because otherwise that's almost certainly a fatal wound.

The skin is very fast to heal (it has to be as the most exposed and damaged organ) and would definitely heal faster than an internal injury. Mucus membranes like in the mouth, nose and vulva heal even faster.

[creativityspren]

Yes, there's magic, sort of. The only reason it's not a fatal wound for her (immediately) is due to her not being human and having a species-wide healing factor. However, it's still a serious threat to the character, as she and everyone else assume that the damage is repaired when the skin heals, and it's definitely not. She's stubborn in resuming her normal life as quickly as possible, and that very nearly does kill her, since infection has set in and her immune system is too taxed to properly fight it off. This character is also the type who ignores wounds, injuries, illness, and the like on a regular basis, to her detriment.

That's what I suspected. Thank you!

[syntinen_laulu]

It's one thing for her to have non-human fast-healing capacity; you're also going to have to explain why the escaped stomach contents swilling around in the abdominal cavity don't cause a fatal infection, as they would in any other human (or any other animal, come to that).

[lilacsigil]

You don't need to have an organ be hit to bring about your infection scenario - stabbing/puncture wounds are notorious for leaving infection behind. This is why you get a tetanus shot if you have a puncture wound.

Have her stabbed in a nice big muscle somewhere, like the thigh, missing major arteries (quite plausible) and once her skin heals up everyone thinks its fine, then infection sets in.

[dinogrrl]

If an organ is perforated, that is going to make things a whole lot worse for the victim. Stomach contents in the abdominal cavity is very bad news. Frankly your character is more likely to die from this kind of wound than live long enough to see any healing at all.

Yes, skin heals quickly. The problem with deeply penetrating wounds like stab wounds is that the opening in the skin is relatively small, and it's very easy for that to get closed over by scabs or rolls of skin (or bandages) before the body's had a chance to properly clean and heal the injury. Once that happens, it's basically only a matter of time before you get infection from the crap that got trapped deep in the wound.

[creativityspren]

Thanks, dinogrrl, for pointing this out. I can't believe I neglected the fluid in abdominal cavity aspect. As for her being very, very dead in the original scenario, you're right. No way to pull her out of that one. In response, I did find information on the condition she would have, how to treat it, and the like. I now know far more about penetrating abdominal trauma and peritonitis and their treatments than I did before, so I'm grateful for that. I'm not using it now, but I have about 200 pages and 6 hours worth of information on abdominal trauma, penetrating wounds, organ perforation, and peritonitis that will come in handy at some point

[dinogrrl]

A deep stab wound to a large muscle would definitely make more sense I think. :)

[germankitty]

I don't know how much of a plot point the stab wound is for you, but for the rest ... an uncle of mine got his leg caught between rungs of a ladder, and ended up with an open fracture of his shin bone. Somehow, he caught an infection during the operation to fix the bone, and subsequently had exactly the problems you're describing. Skin would heal fine, but the bone itself and the tissues wouldn't ... and it needed YEARS of antibiotic treatments to deal with the problem. It also left my uncle with a permanent limp and invalided him out of work.

So basically, a fracture (with infection occurring from circumstances) would work just as well, IMO, and be better in terms of minimal medical care available than internal injuries. :)

[nineveh_uk]

Spears are big and organs are pretty small. Any major damage to an internal organ is likely to be deadly due to blood loss if nothing else. That said, arrow wounds that miss or graze organs are survivable (and unlike in films, being pierced by an arrow is not generally going to allow someone to carry on with minor inconvenience). Punctured lungs due to arrows are historically survivable (Alexander the Great had one), and the same might apply to e.g. a stab wound from a similarly narrow weapon.

[nineveh_uk]

Lots of different sorts, but only one or two of each!

[sashatwen]

You really don't have to have an organ damaged in order for it to be a severe injury that hampers your character for some days or weeks. Internal bleeding alone does the trick, as well as the general pain that comes with it (and the infection --> fever/nausea/dizziness). You also CAN take a stab wound to the belly and not have nay major organs damaged, especially if your character has some weight on them.

There's really no need to be this specific. Just go with "they got lucky" and leave it at that.