Need advice on gunshot wound treatment, surgery, recovery, etc.

"Shot in the shoulder with a .38" can be anything from "OMG her arm got blown off!" to relatively minor injuries.

It's easy to come up with a specific scenario that will work with the plot.

What does your plot need to have happen?

How bad do you want to hurt her?

My husband is a career medic, Wysewomon, and if you want her out of commission for around ten days or so, you don't want any broken bones. If you have her shot in the shoulder part of the arm where there's a lot more meat to hit and some minor blood vessels but nothing major.

If she's already drained and exhausted and she had a gunshot wound, they would keep her hospitalized after surgery both to monitor her response to the surgery and to see how she's healing as well as to make certain that any blood vessels that did need repair weren't leaking at the sutures, and they would also watch for signs of infection to the wound. If she's found unconscious at the scene, they will do a lot of blood tests on her, x-rays, maybe a head CT scan to find out what the heck else is going on, especially if she's found by herself with no one else to answer questions.

How long she's kept in recovery is up to how well she responds after the surgery. (For instance, I was kept in recovery for almost two hours after a minor sedation for a biopsy because they just couldn't get me to breathe well unless they were telling me to. Sometimes I felt like I had my personal respiration coxswain!)

My FIL was in recovery for a heart transplant for a good while and I don't remember how long--but not as long as you might think, since he was going into the intensive care or critical care unit (usually abbreviated ICU or CCU).

Is any of this information relevant to you? If not, please keep asking--someone will probably keep going with you until you have what you need. Good luck!

Broken bones take 40+ days to heal.

And look at an anatomy book - there is a heck of a lot in the shoulder to get damaged. It was used so often in TV with no examination of the reality that it's well into urban legend.

If you want her shot, and out of action for 10 days (10 in the hospital? or 10 total before she's mobile?), skip the shoulder and take out a large muscle, like the butt or thigh.

We shipped one skier out with massive thigh lacerations and he was hobbling around 2 weeks later - came to harass us in fact. Scared the crap out of us because it looked so incredibly bloody but no major veins or arteries got damaged. A 'butt shot' I remember was messy, and the repair was tedious because of the number of damaged muscles, but the patient was hobbling around in a week and discharged in less than two. Infection is always a good complication to use to make DH worry.

Shoulders are a complicated mechanism full of bones, important blood vessels, nerves, and connections. They're in the front and there's a big ol' scapula in the back, perfect for being shattered.



Getting shot there can cripple you for life. It's not what you see in the movies.

http://en.allexperts.com/q/First-Aid-995/Gun-Shot-Wound-Shoulder-1.htm

Your MC will be in a great deal of pain, even in recovery. It could be months of physical therapy to get back the use of her arm.

Ten days in a hospital is a bit much. There's always a shortage of beds and they try to send you home ASAP, even if you're not ready for it. If she picks up an infection she could be on IV antibiotics (they'd still try to send her home) and that's going to knock her flat. There are some serious bugs out there.

Do what I did: call your doctor or go to an ER room (NOT on a Saturday night just after the bars close) and talk to someone. A nurse or tech on lunch break might give you all the dish you need.

Or--go to a gun store and let them know you're a writer trying to get your research right. Usually they're anxious to help. They're readers too, and loathe finding a book where there's a safety or silencer tacked on to a revolver or someone calls a cheap gun a Saturday night special.

You might luck out and find an off-duty copy shopping there. Once one of them talked me out of using the wrong weapon in one of my books, saving me years of embarrassment. I've even gotten fan mail from gun enthusiasts who were pleased I took the trouble to get the details correct.

Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds and Injuries If your local library doesn't have it, you can get it via Inter-Library Loan.

http://writersweapons.com/

http://www.librarything.com/work/110780