Gun shot advice

[elisheva_m]

The big melodramatic action climax of the lakorn I'm writing involves a gun fight (tropey genres x 2, realism is a bonus). Key characters escape, but it's too much to ask that it's unscathed or that they all only have grazes.

What's a good location for a gun shot wound which, let's say, requires stitches but can plausibly be expected to heal without complications? Arm or leg as they had the magical protection of body armour and being main characters. They've made it to a safe location with supplies prepared in advance and with the expectation of bullet wounds. One in particular has been around violence for over a decade and has experience.

I have a good enough idea on graze wounds for my needs - these really are "little details" in the lakorn and I'm just trying to calm the melodrama a bit with something heading in the vague direction of realism :D :D  It's been harder to figure out a wound which conveys "serious" (ie stitches as an emotional stand-in for surgery) but won't be difficult to treat for someone with good supplies and experience.

So rather than asking if this or that might work for you all to tell me it won't, I figured i'd just ask for suggestions on the location(s) from the start :D :D

TIA and thanks for replies to my earlier question.

Comments

[pallas_rose]

Hi, friendly neighbourhood trauma surgeon here! People shot in the limbs often have neither fractures nor vascular compromise--even in the arms--as long as the caliber of the weapon is small. We don't even sew up the wounds, just allow them to close up on their own; gauze dressings changed once or twice a day till then. Make sure they get a tetanus vaccine!

[full_metal_ox]

How about the buttock injury a couple people have suggested?

(I, at least, have missed you! How’ve you been doing? Last year you mentioned undertaking a major move, amidst all the ambient baseline crap hitting the fan.)

[pallas_rose]

Hi hi sorry for delay!

Buttock would work fine, as long as tangential and just thru the muscle, and not entering the pelvis. Otherwise we are looking at a colostomy and that simply isn't sexy.

Calf works but the major arteries have split into three arteries down there, plus two bones and less muscle mass. A good lateral thigh shot, missing the medially placed superficial femoral artery and the middle-ish femur, would be my recommendation :)

[elisheva_m]

Ok, thanks Pallas Rose. I'll move it from calf to thigh then. Appreciate your help.

[pallas_rose]

And to your question--I am well! The major move is over and the new job a different level of intellectual engagement. The other trouble is that I am currently doing a few months in an austere environment so I'm away from home and internet and routines. Hopefully back to normal in the coming months!

[elisheva_m]

It would just be a hand gun, so that's small caliber, yes?

I know this doesn't apply to your work, where there's a good chance your patients will be sensible and take it easy, but my characters need to be somewhat active to finish rescuing themselves. Stitches the next morning works much better for the plot and it would be in character/situation if she aggravates it. So maybe dressings first and then stitches? She's stubborn, she's going to do as much as circumstances allow her and probably somewhat more. This would give me more plausible leeway before I need to reign her in, which lets me keep the story moving at a crucial time.

Thanks for sharing your expertise. I appreciate it.

[tiggymalvern]

Not all handguns are small calibre - maybe avoid a Desert Eagle!

There's a big difference between a .22 and a .45. The most common handguns people carry are .38 or 9mm, so somewhere in the middle. Distance makes a big difference too - the further away your target is from the shooter, the better the chance of an annoying but not dangerous injury.

[elisheva_m]

Definitely at a distance. I don't know anywhere near enough about guns or gun fights to write that scene in detail. It very much works within Thai lakorn to let that be noise and commotion and then ground it back within the reality of the emotions in the following scenes. The injuries are part of stepping that down from melodrama climactic action into what comes next, so I'd like to give them some plausible realism.