Prognosis of Injuries Sustained in Fight

1) From a week to never. Write what your story needs.
2) First day.
3) A few weeks to never. Again, write what is needed for the story.

The trapezius is normally an inch or less thick. 4 inch fangs would permanently alter the muscles, tendons, bones and nerve structure of a shoulder. It likely would not result in enough blood loss to pass out (but could).

Work backwards. Decide what injury is needed for the story and write it accordingly.

Jeff

Lance900 said:

Okay, edited this, shorter question, because someone said the question was too long:

My character has been in a fight with a very large creature that bit her on the shoulder. Bite wound to the left shoulder, two 4-inch long, one inch thick (at the base) fangs punctured the upper trapezius muscle. She passed out from blood-loss before she was found. Woke up in hospital.

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No, she died.

Passing out from blood loss means this blood loss is about to kill you. Your character needs a transfusion right that moment. So unless she is found that very instant by a trained medical professional with the right equipment she's not going to wake up.

Lance900 said:

What would be the loss of mobility to the arm? How long will she have the convalesce?

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Pretty hard to predict. The axillary artery/vein and the brachial plexus mostly occupy the same space. If you damage the artery enough to cause uncompensated hemorrhagic shock you've probably damaged the joint bones and the nerve cluster, too. The shoulder is a complex and fragile joint and a serious injury can easily lead to permanent loss of function. That's a matter of physics, not willpower/pigheadedness. Overall it'll probably be a while.

Lance900 said:

Okay, edited this, shorter question, because someone said the question was too long:

My character has been in a fight with a very large creature that bit her on the shoulder. Bite wound to the left shoulder, two 4-inch long, one inch thick (at the base) fangs punctured the upper trapezius muscle. She passed out from blood-loss before she was found. Woke up in hospital. What would be the loss of mobility to the arm? How long will she have the convalesce?

1) How long before she can punch things again with that arm? (regardless of whether or not she should)
2) How long before she should start physical rehabilitation
3) How long a recovery time are we talking about if she were to obey her doctors?

Assuming she has no irreversible nerve damage and doesn't bleed out before she gets to the hospital.

EDIT: I would be extremely appreciative to anyone who could answer my question

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Hi L900

Assuming your character is human, here are a few pointers:

1. A bite has two force points. With a creature this large, you need to figure that into things, OR, let the bite be a "near-miss", so that those scary teeth just graze the victim.

2. Think of the anatomy.



The trapezius is in transparent blue. See how thin it is?



This has removed all the muscle. The red is artery, blue is vein and yellow is nerves. See how the nerves will be involved if a major artery is hit by such a broad tooth? The yellow bundle is called the brachial plexus, and supplies all the nerves to the arm. So you would likely have incomplete injuries to all neural functions: sensation, power, and others. ETA: The green is the lymphatic system.



Regarding the injury to the vessels, to be survivable, only the vein would be injured. Any significant injury to the artery would cause rapid exsanguination. The trouble with these vessels is that they are under the clavicle, and very difficult to compress to stop bleeding. Of course, the "reason" they are under the clavicle is to protect them from injury in the first place.

To answer your specific questions, you see, will mean much more specificity regarding the injury.

If you want your victim to survive without any permanent functional injury, good luck. This is tiger country. Hehe, as per your creature. But seriously, it is very difficult territory, even for trauma surgeons.

Any significant injury to the brachial plexus is likely never to recover fully.

HTH
CB

Hey, Lance your character can still pass out from pain if you need that. I speak from personal experience. If the heartrate gets high enough, blood pressure can drop in response and cause loss of consciousness. Fear can cause it in some people. I believe it has to do with the vagal nerve or some such. It isn't uncommon.