#penetrating trauma

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anelegantoffenseasked:
Hi hi! I love your blog it’s brilliant~ I had two questions, whenever you get a minute. I was wondering if there was a place 1-2″ below the collar bone that one could be stabbed with a thin, rapier-style sword and recover without noticable impairments. For the other question, and I’m not sure if this is even something you would know, but would an electrically charged large needle propelled with significant force into an eye cause it to burst? Would the damage spread farther into the head? I’m wondering how likely death would be (I’m assuming blinding is a given?)

Hey there, and thanks for your question!

First: the area under the collarbone is an extremely dangerous place to be stabbed with a sword, knife, or any implement. Even if the sword doesn’tpenetrate the ribcage – which it will – and puncture the lung – which it will – there’s still the anatomy of the collarbone itself to take into account.

The collarbone protects two very important body parts: the subclavian blood vessels (artery and vein), and the brachial plexus, the nerve branch which innervates the arm.

An injury just under the collarbone is thus a great risk to the health of the character: lungs, arteries, and major nerves are all in terrible danger.

For a wound that can be survivable, I would suggest a sword injury on the lateral abdomen, where it will look dangerous but doesn’t actually go into the abdomen itself; basically I’m talking about a stab into the “love handles” on the side of the belly.

For the second question: I have absolutely no idea what the electric charge would do. What’s interesting about this is that “electrically charged” implies something in addition to a pin; electricity makes a circuit from someplace, to someplace. Unless we’re talking about a static charge discharging into the eye?

If the needle is fairly small, I can only imagine that it can’t carry an enormous electric charge, so I’d say we’re looking at something fairly minor when it comes to impact and effects.

I would say that the eyeball rupturing is a perfectly reasonable outcome, especially if there’s force involved, though of course needles to the eye, when applied with care, don’t cause this. The words “significant force” and, to a lesser extent, “electrically charged” make me think this is likely. Cue eyeball goo (vitreous humour) running down the character’s face.

However, I don’t think death is as likely as you think it is. I think this is survivable.

Here’s why. The back of the eye socket is mostly bone. Take a look at this image of a skull, which I believe is a replica but enough to make my point:

[Image: Gray’s Anatomy, 1918, public domain. Source.]

It takes a very exact angle to penetrate through the orbital fissure into the brain cavity, through the meninges, and into the brain. As you can see, that opening is tiny. Even a needle with significant force isn’t necessarily going to be accurate enough to get into the brain – that’s just not feasible. Audiences would believe it, mind you, because Hollywood has taught them that eyes are just a gooey front of your brain, but it’s not so.

Hope this helps you out!