Whump Reference Digest/FAQ
Q: My character was shot/stabbed/impaled in the abdomen, how can I treat them if I don't have a hospital available in my story?
A: They're probably going to die, but you can buy time by packing the wound and not letting them eat or drink anything until they get to a place with surgery.
Q: My character is shot/stabbed/impaled in the chest, how can I treat them if I don't have a hospital available in my story?
A: They're probably going to die, but you can buy time by quickly putting your hand over the wound to prevent air going into the chest cavity before they can get to a place with surgery.
Q: My character was shot/stabbed/impailed in the shoulder, how can I treat them if I don't have a hospital available in my story?
A: They're probably not going to die, but they will probably have lasting difficulties using that arm. Packing the wound and getting to surgery as soon as possible might minimize this.
Q: How long does it take for someone's wound to get infected?
A: Signs of infection can start within about 12 hours for really dirty wounds, but normally it takes a few days. Cleaning and caring properly for wounds can decrease chances of infection.
Q: Can I clean a wound with vodka/whisky/wine?
A: No. One, you shouldn't be using any kind of alcohol/hydrogen peroxide/iodine to clean wounds (just water or saline), and two, there's not enough alcohol in any of those things to disinfect anything.
Q: Can a person pass an infection to someone else without knowing they have it?
A: Yes. Someone can be very infectious before they show symptoms of many infectious diseases, or may have an asymptomatic infection but still be able to spread disease.
Q: How do you know if someone has appendicitis?
A: You basically try to find out if the sac holding the abdominal organs is inflamed near where we'd expect the appendix to be. You can do this by jiggling the person's abdomen and seeing if it hurts in the lower right corner.
Q: Can you kill someone by injecting them with air?
A: Only if you're really dedicated. It takes about 20mL of air to kill someone when injected into a vein. And that's a lot of air when you consider most of the syringes we use in a hospital setting for IV injections are like 3mL. Injecting air into muscle is very painful but will not cause death (though if it's a lot it might cause damage to a limb).
Q: How fast do injections work?
A: Most injections into the muscle or fat work in about 20-30 mins. Most injections into a vein work in about 2-5 minutes. Nothing works immediately.
Q: Can you drug someone by stabbing them in the neck with a needle?
A: I mean, the drug will probably get into them that way, but you're very unlikely to hit a vein and very likely to hit something you could hurt, like a nerve or the windpipe. Best case you're probably going to hit a muscle (see above for onset times).
Q: What's a drug with an easy antidote?
A: Insulin or an opioid. With insulin the antidote is sugar, with an opioid the antidote is naloxone which you can get without a prescription in many places.
Q: I need a general anesthetic that a lay person can administer.... In an apocalypse.
A: It's Ether. You can make it with everclear and a car battery.
Q: Are people always monitored in a hospital?
A: No. What monitoring they get is completely dependent on why they're in the hospital. Most people in a hospital are not monitored at all beyond vitals every 12 hours.
Q: Are people always shirtless in the hospital?
A: No. Usually they wear hospital gowns.
Q: What does TV get wrong about hospitals?
A: How pretty people are. Normally people are all bruised up, haven't bathed in days and are covered with tape.
Q: What antibiotics should I stockpile?
A: Ideally, none. Unless you are a literal doctor and know how to use them.
Q: When do you restrain someone in a hospital?
A: Only when they are a danger to themselves and the staff and nothing else is working to decrease that danger.
Q: What drugs are used to restrain someone?
A: Usually haloperidol, diphenhydramine, and lorazepam.
Q: How does someone get a keraunographic marking?
A: By being near a lightning strike. They only last a few days, though.
Q: Can you breathe with no heartbeat?
A: No
Q: What does defibrillation do?
A: It briefly stops the heart in the hope that it will restart in a normal rhythm.
Q: Do I have to break ribs if I'm doing CPR?
A: Depends on your patient. A kid is less likely to have broken ribs after CPR, but an older adult is probably going to have broken ribs. It just kind of depends on the patient.
Q: What blood types can give/receive from each other?
A: A- can give to A-, A+, AB-, AB+
A+ can give to A+, AB+
B- can give to B-, B+, AB-, AB+
B+ can give to B+, AB+
AB- can give to AB-, AB+
AB+ can give to AB+
O- can give to A-, A+, B-, B+, AB-, AB+, O-, O+ (generally, O- can give to any recipient)
O+ can give to A+, B+, AB+, O+
A- can receive from A-, O-
A+ can receive from A-, A+, O-, O+
B- can receive from B-, O-
B+ can receive from B-, B+, O-, O+
AB- can receive from A-, B-, AB-, O-
AB+ can receive from A-, A+, B-, B+, AB-, AB+, O-, O+ (generally, AB+ can receive from any donor)
O- can receive from O-
O+ can receive from O-, O+
Q: How do I make someone unconscious without hurting them?
A: Unconciousness is difficult to achieve without running the serious risk of killing or disabling them for a long time. We're talking weeks or months of disability after a head injury that knocked someone out. Probably the best way is to try to drug someone to the point where they wouldn't remember what happened/would sleep really readily, but they could still maintain their airway.
Q: What does trauma mean in a hospital context?
A: Any injury is considered trauma, while an illness is not.
Q: What does the path through the hospital/recovery look like for a trauma victim?
Emergency department > Surgery > ICU if bad enough > Med Surg floor > rehab if unable to safely return home yet > home. They might bounce back and forth between these a few times depending on needs.
Q: How does amnesia work?
A: The most common types of amnesia are amnesia of events just before or just after an injury, as well as difficulty forming memories after an injury. Amnesia of one's entire life while retaining skills and language, though a good story element, is not a thing that happens physically. A guy named Ansel Bourne just forgot who he was one time psychogenically and we've been making that happen in fiction ever since.
Q: Can I make IV fluids myself at home? How can I administer them?
A: With the right equipment, maybe. But rectoclysis is safer.
