The weapon is a letter opener like this one. I just need advice on how the victim would loo in terms of bleeding, etc. Blood from the mouth or nose? Eye response of some kind? Would death be immediate, most likely?
stabbed in the ear
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Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)
While I am not your go-to person for the bit about how much bleeding, I can tell you you'll need to explain where the ear is stabbed. If it's on the periphery (the part we usually mean when we say a person has large or small ears), then the amount and nature of bleeding will be different than if the inner ear gets stabbed.
Blessings,
Siri Kirpal
While I am not your go-to person for the bit about how much bleeding, I can tell you you'll need to explain where the ear is stabbed. If it's on the periphery (the part we usually mean when we say a person has large or small ears), then the amount and nature of bleeding will be different than if the inner ear gets stabbed.
Blessings,
Siri Kirpal
Assuming you are talking about going through the ear canal to the brain:
The brain is a blood rich organ, the hole would be small. The eustachian tube is an opening from the middle ear (past the ear drum) to the back of the throat. But it remains closed, opening when you swallow to maintain equal air pressure on both sides of the ear drum.
Infamous ice pick murders by hit man, Abe Reles
I assume death was quick but it may not have been. If you have a bleed in your brain it causes increasing pressure as blood is pumped in but cannot get back out. The brain is enclosed in the skull and has no room to swell. The brain herniates through the opening to the spinal column and destroys the brain stem. At that point you lose all function below the neck including the heart.
There are other brain injuries that cause instant death such as might be caused by a bullet. All muscle tone ceases instantly and the person collapses. They do not fly backward as in the movies.
The brain is a blood rich organ, the hole would be small. The eustachian tube is an opening from the middle ear (past the ear drum) to the back of the throat. But it remains closed, opening when you swallow to maintain equal air pressure on both sides of the ear drum.
Infamous ice pick murders by hit man, Abe Reles
Bleeding was said to have been minimal but an ice pick is smaller than a letter opener.
I assume death was quick but it may not have been. If you have a bleed in your brain it causes increasing pressure as blood is pumped in but cannot get back out. The brain is enclosed in the skull and has no room to swell. The brain herniates through the opening to the spinal column and destroys the brain stem. At that point you lose all function below the neck including the heart.
There are other brain injuries that cause instant death such as might be caused by a bullet. All muscle tone ceases instantly and the person collapses. They do not fly backward as in the movies.
Thank you for the responses.
Yes, I'm sorry I wasn't clearer, I did mean that the weapon penetrated the inner ear and brain.
Maeze, it sounds like there might be minimal exterior bleeding, then?
I won't be following up with any autopsy or anything. The scene is between the mc and an antagonist. The antagonist tries to kill her and she in turn grabs the letter opener and stabs him in the ear. The angle of their fight makes the ear or throat most likely, and I have a throat stabbing happening elsewhere in the book, so I don't want to have another. So I just need to know what she would see as she strikes him, and for a couple of minutes after. She's then going to flee and any follow up about the killing will be from second hand or third hand sources and doesn't need any level of detail.
Based on what you've posted, Maeze, I'm thinking maybe he'd have some sort of seizure, perhaps? But the blood would not be especially visible, gushing from the nose or mouth. I do want the strike to incapacitate him. If it takes longer for him to die, it's not especially crucial to know, but the mc does need to end the fight very fast with the blow.
Yes, I'm sorry I wasn't clearer, I did mean that the weapon penetrated the inner ear and brain.
Maeze, it sounds like there might be minimal exterior bleeding, then?
I won't be following up with any autopsy or anything. The scene is between the mc and an antagonist. The antagonist tries to kill her and she in turn grabs the letter opener and stabs him in the ear. The angle of their fight makes the ear or throat most likely, and I have a throat stabbing happening elsewhere in the book, so I don't want to have another. So I just need to know what she would see as she strikes him, and for a couple of minutes after. She's then going to flee and any follow up about the killing will be from second hand or third hand sources and doesn't need any level of detail.
Based on what you've posted, Maeze, I'm thinking maybe he'd have some sort of seizure, perhaps? But the blood would not be especially visible, gushing from the nose or mouth. I do want the strike to incapacitate him. If it takes longer for him to die, it's not especially crucial to know, but the mc does need to end the fight very fast with the blow.
If you use the letter opener, you could have a lot of bleeding. The ice pick used by the infamous mob hit man left a much smaller hole.
As for a seizure, that is possible but not certain, so you could write that either way. And yes, he would likely be incapacitated almost instantly.
As for a seizure, that is possible but not certain, so you could write that either way. And yes, he would likely be incapacitated almost instantly.
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There are a lot of horror stories about the Japanese death-marches during WWII, this is an excerpt from an interview with an Australian POW.
"The interviewer produced a small piece of wood like a meat skewer, pushed that into my left ear, and tapped it in with a small hammer. I think I fainted some time after it went through the drum. I remember the last excruciating sort of pain, and I must have gone out for some time because I was revived with a bucket of water. Eventually it healed but of course I couldn’t hear with it. I have never been able to hear since."
Hopefully that helps describe the experience. But we're talking a stab into the brain. I'm no expert, but a stab to the brain via the ear canal would probably end with the letter opener being somewhere in between the cerebral cortex (Balance and coordination) and the brain stem (breathing, reflex movement, regulation of heartbeat, consciousness, and a lot of other really important things) So if the man doesn't die instantly (which isn't necessarily an uncommon occurrence) he'd probably fall to the ground and clumsily fumble around for a few seconds trying to grasp the letter opener, maybe some inhuman groans, moaning, or hiccup-like gasps for breath involved before he'd eventually lose consciousness and die from the blood and swelling destroying the brain stem. Hopefully that helps.
"The interviewer produced a small piece of wood like a meat skewer, pushed that into my left ear, and tapped it in with a small hammer. I think I fainted some time after it went through the drum. I remember the last excruciating sort of pain, and I must have gone out for some time because I was revived with a bucket of water. Eventually it healed but of course I couldn’t hear with it. I have never been able to hear since."
Hopefully that helps describe the experience. But we're talking a stab into the brain. I'm no expert, but a stab to the brain via the ear canal would probably end with the letter opener being somewhere in between the cerebral cortex (Balance and coordination) and the brain stem (breathing, reflex movement, regulation of heartbeat, consciousness, and a lot of other really important things) So if the man doesn't die instantly (which isn't necessarily an uncommon occurrence) he'd probably fall to the ground and clumsily fumble around for a few seconds trying to grasp the letter opener, maybe some inhuman groans, moaning, or hiccup-like gasps for breath involved before he'd eventually lose consciousness and die from the blood and swelling destroying the brain stem. Hopefully that helps.
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Your eardrum is exsquisitly sensitive to pain.
It's clear that some penetrating brain injuries are survivable, some are not. It depends on which structures you damage. But as an author, you can write the story any way you want to. Multiple scenarios are credible.
Something inserted into the ear can hit various parts of the brain or miss it altogether, based on angle and depth inserted. Likewise, it can hit a major artery or vein or have minimal bleeding, again depending on angle and depth. You could have anything from seeping to gushing and anything from pain and anger to instant death. Write your story as you see fit, make the scene believable and you won't have any issues.
Jeff
Jeff