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Hi, I’m currently writing a book in which one of the characters kills himself by cutting his radial artery. I’m interested to know how long it should take for him to die, as well as the chances of him surviving. I’d really appreciate any information I can get:)
thanks!
~Emma
Hi, Emma.
It depends, which is the answer to a lot of these. A radial artery is fairly small and cutting just one would mean that the person would take quite a while to bleed out, but it also depends on where the artery is cut at and in what direction. Arteries are made of tiny, involuntary muscles so they will spasm to try to conserve blood if cut crossways. if cut up along the artery, they have less ability to do that. Without adequate help, death could occur in a matter of minutes to hours. In any case, there is a chance for survival. What the after effects will be depend on the type of cut as much as anything. There may be nerve damage to the hand, for example. This PubMed abstract has a bit more information.
Hey, hello! I just found you blog, is quite interesting, and amusing, as i’m not a doctor or anything similar. I was wondering about how to perform an amputation, specifically amputate the arm just below the elbow. Sorry if there are any grammar mistakes, thank you!
Hi, Enreekay.
You would need to figure out a way to control blood flow, probably by applying a tourniquet above the place where you were going to cut. then cut away the tissue, tying off any major blood vessels with sutures or using cautery to seal them as need to keep the person from bleeding out when the tourniquet is removed (don’t leave these in place for more than a few hours, or the tissue below them will die and you’ll be back in the same boat with gangrene in a day or three). And then you’d need to saw through the bones. If there is magical healing available, that would be helpful at sealing off the blood vessels. You’d want to leave enough healthy skin to fold back over the end to create a stoma (or stump, as it was referred to historically/informally) and stitch that together over the end of the remaining limb.