Healing Time for a Nail Through the Hand?

You'd have to be very precise to avoid all the bones in the hand, and, although I don't know how long it would take to heal, my first thought was, is this before or after the tetanus vaccine was developed? 'Iron nail' somehow suggests 'before'.

Is it Jesus?





Heh.

Infection is your biggest problem there. Puncture wounds are hard that way -- you're not supposed to close them I don't think?

Also depends on the size of the nail and where -- even just avoiding bones there are places that are more tendon/muscle/vessel dense and places much easier to puncture less stuff. Also depends on the place because of how your hand moves. Like high under the knuckle between the pinky and ring finger I'd think would be 'better' than low and closer to the thumb/involving pointer/thumb musculature, because you're just using everything more.

I'm thinking that under controlled circumstances, stainless steel would be easier to sterilize than iron.
Why were you thinking of using iron?

What degree of healing? Stopped bleeding? Stopped hurting? Nothing but a vague scar and a memory?

I had a nail through the foot when I was a brat; I stood on a piece of wood with a nail in it on a council tip whilst playing with my good friend Neil. I hardly felt it go in, just a strange sensation, but when I picked my foot up it had a piece of wood nailed to it and the nail was pushing the skin on the top although it didn't quite break it. I put my foot down and the angle of the wood pulled it out - which also felt quite smooth - and then there was blood. I limped to my friend's house where his mum helped wash the foot, my mum came to pick me up in her car (dead posh, we were), and took me to the Doc for a tetanus. I was allowed to keep my foot elevated on the sofa that evening but it was school the next day! I was "off games" for a week or so but only as a precaution, I could walk normally after a day or two, although, that said I could feel the injury for months or even years after when I poked the sole of my foot with a finger.

Deepthought, my opinion is that you should work backwards.

What's the plot point you need? Do you need the character to be in hospital for a week? Have surgery etc?

If you give us that info then it's a lot easier to give you a realistic scenario.

After a patient has had a penetrating injury to the hand, we will examine the neurovascular supply and tendons. An X-ray will confirm the absence of bony injury etc.

So, give us what ya need ;-)

Nail through the hand here, when I was about 12. Healed within a few days, no doctor, not even a bandage. Too afraid to tell my parents.

Still have the scar nearly five decades later...

Jeff

Deepthought said:

I'm surprised it didn't hurt. Any idea why?

Click to expand...

I am not a doctor, but I think it's because we only have nerve endings in the skin, which is why deeper wounds don't tend to hurt more than shallow ones and a paper cut can hurt like hell!

Possibly, also, on the sole of the foot they're more spaced out compared to, say, the finger tips.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

The knife I accidently drove through the webbing between my thumb and index finger didn't go all the way through, but...there was a geyser of blood that shot up. (I was trying to puncture the eye of a coconut, in case you want to know how it happened. Mom dashed me off to Kaiser. Tetanus shot, yes. No stitches because deep wounds won't heal all the way through if you do that. The doctor gave me a butterfly bandage to stop the bleeding. Don't remember how long it took to heal, but I think I only took one day off school if that. I do still have the scar.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal