What would to do if someone is bleeding heavily from a wound?

It depends how deep the gash is. The abdominal wall isn't very thick. Probably one would want to push the intestines back in, put pressure on any arteries that are spurting, and call 911. Infection is the least of his worries - if any internal organs are injured, he needs to get the operating room right now.

How long it takes him to recover depends on what is injured. If it's just skin and fat, he may just need stitches and will go home from the emergency room right away. If his colon has a hole, he may have a temporary colostomy for a few months. If it's his spleen, he might bleed to death before he makes it to the operating room. It all depends on what's injured.

I agree. Also, the abdomen tends to rip open, even in thin people [docs told me this when I had a very wide gash to the upper thigh - upper thighs, abdomens like to split open].

That's gonna be a bad wound with an awful risk of infection.

Better to have it higher up, at the ribs, or in the back muscles, if you want to avoid the seriousness. Someone would heal from that pretty quickly, although the muscle would be painful for much longer.

But if it is the side of the abdomen? Some sort of stitching/holding things together would be necessary. And probably oral and topical antibiotic herbs and lots of rinsing. It could take a very long time to heal. The person should try to limit movement, depending on what they use to act as stitches.

HTH

It depends upon where on his side and how long and how deep and what made the gash. You can make a very long and deep flank incision and never encounter any abdominal organs if you stay in the retroperitoneum. Palmfrond is used to pfannenstiel and low midline incisions which behave very differently than the flank. Realistically all you'd do is apply a pressure dressing and get to an ER. Blood loss kills in minutes to hours. Wound Infection kills in days to weeks.

chocobok said:

My character has a deep gash on his side, and he's losing blood quickly, enough for it to seep onto the floor. There's no doctors around, so what would the treatment be? Wrap something around him to stop it from bleeding? What about to prevent infection?

Around how long would it take somebody to recover from a wound like that?

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Apply field dressing and direct pressure upon the wound. Yell for the F'ing medic and lay down appropriate cover fire. If no medic is available, then cinch aforementioned field dressing....someone throws f'ing wounded patient over shoulder and hump ass to nearest extraction point. F' the infection....if you can't control the bleeding then your patient is dead....worry about the infeciton later....

chocobok said:

My character has a deep gash on his side, and he's losing blood quickly, enough for it to seep onto the floor. There's no doctors around, so what would the treatment be? Wrap something around him to stop it from bleeding?

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Apply direct pressure - a tightly wrapped, slightly stretchy cloth will do, with a pad of clean and absorbent cloth on the wound, like a clean t-shirt or cloth diaper, if you have it. If you don't, direct pressure from hands will do.

We treated a nasty snowboard gash last year where an alert bystander (thank the FSM!) used some knitted ski gear (watch caps and a muffler to wrap it with) while someone else went to report it and get ski patrol.

By the time the patroller got there a few minutes later, the bleeding was pretty much under control, so he just did an overwrap and brought the victim down where we had better working conditions.

What about to prevent infection?

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Screw the infection. That's what antibiotics are for. The critical step is stopping the blood loss.

You clean the wound later, just before stitching it.

Around how long would it take somebody to recover from a wound like that?

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Depends on what got cut and how much blood loss.

What does the PLOT require? How long does it need him to be hurt?

Give us that info and we can give you the details.

chocobok said:

My character has a deep gash on his side, and he's losing blood quickly, enough for it to seep onto the floor. There's no doctors around, so what would the treatment be? Wrap something around him to stop it from bleeding? What about to prevent infection?

Around how long would it take somebody to recover from a wound like that?

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Assuming no intestines are hanging out. You apply direct pressure to the wound, and wrap the wound as has been mentioned above.

If you are away from medical care and its going to be a few days, one thing that will work to save your life if infection/gangrene sets in are maggots.

Maggots have been known to save life and limb in the field, they only eat dead/dying flesh and diseased flesh. Yummy

Also, if the wound is up by the lungs, if possible, you want to wrap in a NON-porous material, like a plastic. Otherwise, there is a chance air can enter the cavity leading to a collapsed lung.

Depending on the wound size, you can use a credit card, ID card, anything non-porous.

You NEVER remove a dressing in the field. Once its on and the bleeding has stopped, you don't mess with it until you get a trained medical professional. If you wrap a wound and it keeps bleeding, you wrap OVER the initial wrap and apply more pressure.

Lastly, if there is any bone sticking out, you do not try to stick it back in. What you do is wrap the end of the bone in a moist dressing and keep it moist so that the bone doesn't dry out and die.

Mel...

dgiharris said:

Maggots have been known to save life and limb in the field, they only eat dead/dying flesh and diseased flesh. Yummy
Mel...

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It depends on the species of fly. Most will be invasive. If you aren't 100% sure of what species you've got, you'd be better off keeping the dressing on and the flies off.

GeorgeK said:

It depends on the species of fly. Most will be invasive. If you aren't 100% sure of what species you've got, you'd be better off keeping the dressing on and the flies off.

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Now you're discriminating.

Fly racist

Mel...

chocobok said:

Thanks for the info

For the plot, I want him to fall to the ground, faint, and have enough blood seeping onto the floor to create a puddle.

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A slash through the skin and fatty tissue into the muscles along his side would do that. He could pass out from the pain quite easily. Until it's healed, he will find it hard to move around because those muscles are involved in almost everything you do walking and sittin

That avoids the messy guts hanging out problem.