What Happens # 7 : when you get shot at and can you survive it??

man-d (49)in #life • 7 years ago

Hello fellow Steemians

In today's world increasing number of people are gaining access to firearms and people are becoming more trigger happy and the number of victims to gunshots are increasing at an alarming rate. According to an article in 2013 article for The Atlantic online,

U.S has higher rates of homicides from guns than Pakistan. At 4.5 deaths per 100,000 people, the U.S. rates aren’t much lower than gun homicide rates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (5.2 deaths per 100,000 people). Annually, the U.S. has about two fewer gun homicide deaths per 100,000 people than Iraq, which has 6.5 deaths per 100,000.

This is an alarming situation and needs to be controlled but with the new president in the White House and more gun friendly laws being passed this number might well go up in the near future. At present almost 100 people are killed in America everyday by guns. So in case if you or anyone near you gets shot be it intentionally or by accident, you should know what is going to happen in the next few seconds to next few days if you survive.

Most of the knowledge we have about gunshot wounds comes from movies and we are shown a lie that a gunshot to your leg or arm wont have any dire consequences for you and in movies we mostly see the action hero shrugging off the gunshot and continues to fight with the villian.

Getting Shot

A bullet can punch its way into the human body pretty well and may be that's the reason why they have not changed a lot in the last several hundred years. But beyond the obvious hole a bullet makes in your flesh, there’s a lot more damage happening on the inside.

A 9 mm bullet fired from a handgun, used by the police travels at a speed of 900 mph which is faster than the speed of sound (767 mph). This fast moving bullet carries a lot of momentum with it and when it enters the body the complete momentum is passed on to the body.
Due to this momentum a cavity is created which expands as the bullet enters the body and then falls on to itself. This creates a tremor in the body which can cause serious damage to the organs and tissues even if the bullet does not hit them directly.

Fate at work

Now the bullet has entered your body by punching a hole in your flesh and now its up to fate that you will survive or not. It is not certain that you will survive even if the bullet has not hit any vital organs of your body just like its not certain that you will die even after getting shot multiple times. It all depends on the path the bullet takes after entering your body.
A single gunshot in the arm or leg is more than enough to kill you if you’re unlucky. But why you might think? And the big secret answer is Blood Loss

Connor Narciso, former combat medic and Army Green Beret who served in Afghanistan, says

Blood loss, is the number one preventable cause of death on the battlefield (about 90% of those preventable deaths are due to blood loss).

So if you will live or die after getting shot probably depends on the amount of blood loss that happens until the time you reach a hospital or receive any aid.

If that bullet hits a brachial artery in your arm, one of the bilateral inguinal arteries in your groin, or the subclavian arteries beneath each of your clavicles, then it can cause massive hemorrhaging. Your muscles do have some built-in defense mechanisms to try and stop it, but it’s usually not enough when you have internal blood loss caused by penetrating projectiles like bullets.
The other danger, of course, is organ damage that leads to organ failure. If a bullet strikes a vital organ then it will tear through the organs in the same way it did with your outer flesh. Bullets can bounce, ricochet, and change direction once they’re inside your body after hitting a bone or an organ which leads to the case of one bullet hitting multiple organs.

Personal Accounts of victims!!

You might think that when a bullet hits you it will cause immense pain but it is not true, well not at least at the beginning. According to personal account of a person who got shot by accident with his own shotgun says

My brain didn't actually register what had happened until a few seconds later. My shin bone was sticking out about 2 to 3 inches from the ragged end of my stump, but I felt nothing, nor did I notice it. Not at first, anyway.

Other personal accounts range anywhere from

an “intense burning sensation” to “getting beaned by a pitch in baseball.

According to one account

it was like being shoved really hard, followed by intense, sharp pain after a minute or two. Of course, many victims say the worst part is feeling their own warm blood pour all over their body.

Another says

I didn’t even realize that I had been shot through the face because the only real pain I felt was from the exit wound behind my ear. It was an excruciating burning sensation, but what I remember most was the horrifying feeling of the hot blood pouring out of my mouth and down my back. I absolutely thought I was going to die, but never actually lost consciousness until I went into surgery at the hospital.

Helping a gunshot victim

As stated, surviving a gunshot largely comes down to luck. But that doesn't mean that there is nothing that can be done to increase the odds of survival.
The first thing that should be done is call the emergency services for help because they are the ones who will eventually help the victim so it is of prime importance to inform them first. Then

You need to try and stop the bleeding as that is the major reason for the death in gunshot wounds.
Look for swelling, skin discoloration, and other signs of hemorrhaging, then try to control it by applying manual pressure on the wound, or by fastening a tourniquet high and tight on the limb where the wound is located.
If there’s an open bullet wound in the chest cavity, it’s important that you try to prevent any air getting sucked into it. Otherwise, you or the victim may suffer tension pneumothorax, or a collapsed lung, cutting breathing capability in half. The best way to plug the hole is with some form of occlusive dressing.

Chances of dying from gunshot wound

According to the National Safety Council, your overall odds of dying from a firearms discharge this year are about one in 514,000. Pretty slim. Over the course of your lifetime, however, that number is closer to one in 6,905. But keep in mind, that data covers all deaths by firearm discharge, including suicides, gun handling accidents, and hunting accidents in addition to murder and mass shootings.
Gunshot victims have a surprisingly high survival rate. Assuming you’re not shot directly in the heart or brain (which has a 9% survival rate), you have about an 80 to 95% chance of survival (95% chance if you get to the hospital with your heart still beating).
About 80% of the targets on your body are not fatal areas to be shot, so while the path of a bullet decides your fate, there are plenty of paths that lead to you surviving.

Conclusion

Although the gunshot wounds may not be fatal at times but its not preferable to get one. But if you or someone near you gets shot then you know what to do in order to increase your chances of survival. The main thing to do in case of a shot is to try and stop the blood loss which drastically increases the chances of survival.

If you like this article then please upvote it and if you would like to read other articles in the series of What Happens then you can read them :

What Happens #6 : When you start exercising!!
What Happens #5 : When lightening strikes you!!
What Happens # 4 : When you are in Love
What Happens #3 : When you quit smoking !!
What Happens #2 : When we have sex !!!
What Happens #1 : To our body in space !!