Having thoughts and feelings about something THG and Peeta Mellark related. Sorry not sorry (?) Anyway
Peeta's injuries at the end of the 74th were extreme. We know this because with all of the Capitol's medicine they still weren't able to save his leg. We also know that there were a LOT of injuries the boy sustained but I'd argue given the details we are given that the most immediate issue by the time they were announced winners and being carried out of the arena was blood loss.
Peeta had lost so much blood sepsis was no longer the most pressing concern AND Katniss describes him essentially struggling to maintain consciousness up to the point that by the time the doctors do reach him he's legally and medically dead. She says his heart stopped at least twice. And my inference is that it is because of the blood loss, not the other very bad injuries he also sustained that certainly did not help in this creature's ability to survive but these other injuries compound, the most immediate issue of his heart stopping is the blood loss.
Someone who understand the heart and cardiovascular system better than I could potentially argue something else, something more precise I will differ to those with more knowledge than I if someone were to decide to add more flavor but Collins ain't a cardiovascular expert as far as I am aware so I don't think it's hubris to interpret what she did write was that Peeta's blood loss led to his heart stopping and arguably being dead for a moment there.
So if we're all in agreement on that. Then I ask, how did the Capitol doctors save him? Just TV ER magic of putting paddles to the chest doesn't mean anything if the boy's blood volume was so low the pump of his heart couldn't work. Okay so maybe with all the medical advancements the Capitol has they have a way to do it without transfusions. I will also happily adopt someone's ideas that the Capitol's medicine is just that good and that magical in comparison to my knowledge certainly and I'm aware there are some people doing research on how to deal with bodies that need blood without human to human transfusions but if we've already agreed that Peeta's "death" is related to blood loss then ride the thought with me when I say MY version and MY interpretation leads me to this idea:
In order for Peeta Mellark to have lived after the ending of the 74th Hunger Games, the Capitol docs would have needed to have blood on hand and a lot of it to intervene and save his life. Which arguably means that some faction of Capitolites donate their blood.
This is very simplistic, I'm not in any way absolving anyone in this fictional world of their ignorance leading to the demise of innocent people. All I'm saying is that at their core, even Capitolites are willing to part with something something as intimate and life sustaining as the blood in their very veins in the off chance it could be used to help someone else whether they understand the gravity of that gift or not.
And I think it would not take Peeta Mellark very long to make that connection, and it being one of the things, as simplified as I'm making it, as simplified as Peeta would also state it, that would continue to give Peeta evidence that his philosophy about humans is correct and that he will continue, even in the face of all the horrors, to be the person who does whatever they can to help.
To make it long story short and show not tell but if Snow is trying to be like Gaul and point out in the way Gaul did how Peeta himself also killed and Peeta himself is just an animal like the rest of them, Peeta's come back would be "If that were true, I wouldn't be here because your Capitol wouldn't have had blood on standby given freely to save my life." and iunno, I just think that's neat.
