Hopefully I've researched this enough for medically-knowledgeable people not to throw the book across the room, even found period sources with people (rarely) surviving similar injuries, but I might as well check here.
The unfortunate victim is a young woman, reasonably healthy, who is shot with a black-powder military rifle at fairly close range (mass firing squad). I have the bullet hitting a little below her right breast around the 8th rib or so, maybe the costal cartilage, which would put it at liver. That would cause a lot of bleeding - I assume it would take a while to be fatal? Would the bullet go through? She is wearing ordinary working-class clothing so probably a corset but not tight-lacing. I could have it deflected toward her side by one of the stays (spring steel), would that be more likely to cause it to lodge rather than exit?
Result I want is to have her be left for dead (the soldiers get attacked just after so they don't have time to double-tap/bayonet), be found some time later and barely survive. She's cared for by an experienced war nurse but there's no access to a doctor for at least several days. Antiseptics had been discovered only a few years prior so the nurse be sort of experimenting...maybe using vinegar or some other weak acid if they don't have phenol on hand? I would like her to eventually recover, though it would like take a while.
Anyway, I need to go ahead and write the damn thing and use what works for the story, but I want to keep things in the realm of plausibility.
The unfortunate victim is a young woman, reasonably healthy, who is shot with a black-powder military rifle at fairly close range (mass firing squad). I have the bullet hitting a little below her right breast around the 8th rib or so, maybe the costal cartilage, which would put it at liver. That would cause a lot of bleeding - I assume it would take a while to be fatal? Would the bullet go through? She is wearing ordinary working-class clothing so probably a corset but not tight-lacing. I could have it deflected toward her side by one of the stays (spring steel), would that be more likely to cause it to lodge rather than exit?
Result I want is to have her be left for dead (the soldiers get attacked just after so they don't have time to double-tap/bayonet), be found some time later and barely survive. She's cared for by an experienced war nurse but there's no access to a doctor for at least several days. Antiseptics had been discovered only a few years prior so the nurse be sort of experimenting...maybe using vinegar or some other weak acid if they don't have phenol on hand? I would like her to eventually recover, though it would like take a while.
Anyway, I need to go ahead and write the damn thing and use what works for the story, but I want to keep things in the realm of plausibility.