Is there a safe place to get stabbed?

[Orion283]

One of my character is under magical compulsion to "run (another character) through". The other character gets the idea that if he can let the first guy stab him and survive it he can get healed up later, as long as they get help within a few minutes. Is there a place in the torso where one could be stabbed with a relatively thin sword that would give someone at least a few minutes to live?

[MichaelB]

Huh. I thought we had a thread about this, once.

Short answer, the right shoulkder is probably the most safe; long answer: there IS no safe place to be stabbed. The body is a complex maze of nerves, blood vessels, lymph nodes and musculature, and no matter where you are stabbed, there's always the chance of hitting something major and the wound becoming seriously life-threatening.

But if anywhere, the shoulder, but definitely sideways from the front, not downwards from up top.

That, or a very shallow wound on the side, presuming the sword manages to miss the organs.

Oh, and if you want to get fiddly, technically and linguistically, the character will have been 'run through' if the blade entirely pierces his forearm (all the way through). But that's probably getting too technical.

[Thuriel]

In various visual entertainment (i.e., television and movies) I've seen people get run through around the left of their stomach. Based on the very little research I dd because I wondered if these things were playing such a wound too lightly, apparently it's possible to be stabbed there and, like, not die. So yeah.

[Orion283]

I may cheat a little and say goblin physiology is such that they're meant to last a little longer after being stabbed, being a warrior race. Like pocket-klingons. On the other hand I may genuinely kill the character off. So far, aside from reproducing asexually, they've been shown to be pretty normal as life forms go. Eating, sleeping, etc.

[Tundra]

Is he being magically healed? Many impalings don't kill people instantly.

[Thuriel]

...If it's a made-up species, you could have them get stabbed anywhere and claim that there just weren't any vital organs, if you don't mind being a little shady with your biology. Stabbed in the head? No problem, the Krizkrash from the planet Creepie don't have anything important in their heads! What, you thought they did because they look exactly like humans?

[caraez]

That's a good point, Thuriel. As for the actual question, what if they miss a little and get the arm?

[ZeissIkon]

Old thread, but it's worth noting that most stab wounds don't result in immediate death; assuming major arteries aren't compromised (aorta, brachial arteries, carotid arteries, pulmonary arteries), the most likely cause of death from a thoracic wound is collapsed lung; from an abdominal wound, peritonitis. A collapsed lung can kill in a matter of minutes, by suffocation (the collapse prevents the other lung from working efficiently); peritonitis takes days. A bleed-out from a major artery takes less than a minute to unconsciousness.

[Dwiesel McAllister]

I'm enjoying this influx of biological information! :)

[KageJim]

I was just talking to my friend today, who is taking a combat class in German Longsword Fighting, and the fastest way of killing someone with a blade is to cut the jugular vein on the side of the neck, but most people will still be conscious for 10 to 20 seconds even after that (the point is that in combat you never assume "mortal would = no longer a threat).

And to get back to the topic more directly at hand...almost any place could be survivable. The human body is surprisingly durable. There are many stories about people going to the ER with large pieces of metal stabbed through their bodies and they survive (yes, including through the HEAD). One man was shot in the forehead and survived; the bullet actually went between the hemispheres of his brain (that one might be an urban legend, but that's what I heard).

[TwistedFirestarter]

Every time I see this thread, I want to say "THE HOSPITAL!"

[KageJim]

Every time I see this thread, I want to say "THE HOSPITAL!"

Hospitals are DANGEROUS. You realise how many people die at those places? ;)

[KeinesV]

Jim's post reminds me of a TLC show I once saw about a guy that went into the ER with a seven inch serrated knife jammed into his skull - right the hilt. He lived. X-Rays were kind of neat.

[Orion283]

Now that I think of it, generations of being used as expendable grunts may have caused them to evolve some hardier innards and redundant organs as a defense mechanism. Though just the same I may end up having him die because I've had a whole plotbunny about how they have only a few days to get the materials to revive him before his spirit goes off to be reincarnated (which also acts as a nice callback to an earlier chapter when the goblins were chatting about goblinoid life/death cycles), and they mull over whether or not he'd be better off getting a fresh start instead of being stuck with them.

[KageJim]

Off topic: What's a plotbunny?...

[MichaelB]

KageJim, the term 'plotbunny' was coined (I think) in the NaNoWriMo forums, and it is basically a euphemism for particular inspirations for events or ideas in our stories that strike us suddenly or unexpectedly, much like the famous Rabbit of Caerbannog from Monty Puthon and the Holy Grail leaping up and attacking unexpectedly.

Essentially, it's just 'an unexpected spark of inspiration leading to an idea or plot point in a story'.

[Orion283]

Also that like rabbits, a plotbunny will soon quickly become a lot of wandering plotbunnies hopping all over your story with new unplanned plot threads.

[Dwiesel McAllister]

Jim's post reminds me of a TLC show I once saw about a guy that went into the ER with a seven inch serrated knife jammed into his skull - right the hilt. He lived. X-Rays were kind of neat.

Or that episode of House where the adopted Chinese girl had a nail in her brain that made her more susceptible to developing addictions?

[KeinesV]

House is a fictional tv show (sorry girls, he's not real!). The thing on TLC i was referring to was a documentary (which i thought was intrinsically implied, considering the nature of the channel). Pardon me for being a television snob, but documentaries and scripted series really bear little comparison.

[GriffinMaiden]

Perhaps they can't be compared, but "House" does draw a lot from real, documented medical mysteries and conditions. Not to say they're always accurately portrayed, but as far as I know, none of the mysteries on the show is made-up. So don't discount it entirely.

[Dwiesel McAllister]

The point of my post was mainly to bring up the brain's addiction center, very loosely connected via an episode of House to the concept of surviving for an extended period of time with a foreign object embedded in the brain.

[Orion283]

Now I'm imagining an all-goblin version of House. Hilariously violent.