Suicide question

[Dwiesel McAllister]

Well, now that the title's got your attention...

Long story short, in my WIP, one of my characters tries to kill herself by slitting her wrists with her husband's razor (a real blade, not that Bic crap, lol!) She doesn't really put much thought into it, so she goes across rather than down the vein. Now, if hubby leaves around 8:30 and comes home at noon, how much blood would she have to lose to be unconscious (NOT dead) by the time he gets home? I don't know exactly when she'd cut herself; it depends on her rate of blood loss. Also, there's always the possibility that she might just faint at the sight of the blood or at the fact that she actually tried to kill herself.

I'm asking here because I'm not having much luck finding the info anywhere else. All I've gotten so far is that cutting across is usually not fatal (which I already knew) and that you can lose about 1/3 of your blood before you die.

Thanks in advance!

[Orion283]

You could probably find out by researching how much blood those veins/arteries pump out. But my best advice would be to fudge it a little and not be specific about what time she cuts herself so he arrives at whatever stage of the bleeding you need him to.

[MelancholyBliss]

A friend of mine was found passed out within 45 minute of slitting her wrists that way and survived.

That's about all I can really say.

And yeah, slitting of one's wrist tends to be a form of suicide of people who are quite certain they want to die. Getting past the breaking of the skin is the hardest part. The majority of people who are still on the fence would stop at that first droplet of blood before any significant wound occurs. Often drugs and drinking would be something to give a boost of courage to actually go through with it. In which case passing out within minutes of being found would be most probable.

If you do decide for thought, another tidbit of info is that people who slit their wrists in the tub often also fill the tub with hot water and allow for a slow drain, leaving the hot water on with a slow drip. After getting past the pain of slit wrists, the hardest part is dealing with the cold that happens during a slow death. Leaving the water on that way makes the ordeal more bearable.

[snooze]

This thread kind of makes me feel like barfing. I have no significant input, I just wanted to put that out there.

[Einna]

It depends on the cut; some people can slit their wrists but not go deep and never need stitches or get into any real trouble from blood loss. Others who mean business can do serious damage and pass out within a few minutes from blood loss. And MB's point about the water and such is true. People who mean to kill themselves often employ more than one method, too...for example, taking an overdose and slitting your wrists.

The best way to do it, if in doubt, is just to not be too specific. If it's done from the husbands POV, you needn't specify anything about how it's done, just the state that she's found in. If you want to do if from her POV, just don't be specific. If you absolutely must be specific (i.e. she's the kind of person who would obsess about the details) then ask on the NaNo forums for someone who's done it (there's always gonna be someone on there) and just use their details as a rough guide. That's the best advice I can give.

[Dwiesel McAllister]

Thanks, everyone! I probably should have added that knowing the exact details is mainly for my personal benefit, because I love details.
I'm planning on doing the cutting scene from her POV, and then have the rest of the incident from her husband's. I just don't want to have her slit her wrists right after he leaves and have him come back 4 hours later and have her still be alive if there's a chance that it weren't possible.

[MelancholyBliss]

Depth of the blade also counts. And even if a slit does not follow a main artery, it can cut into one and then the blood loss is still going to happen, just more slowly.

Without giving any details about how deep she cut herself or how her artery was cut, it is entirely possible for her to cut her wrists horizontally and be dead 4 hours later.

[pkgirl]

From someone with experience. going across the vein can make you lose roughly half a litre, due to the skin healing and clotting quite quickly. Going down the vein however, makes you lose a lot more due to the vein not having enough time to close over.