How fatal and painful is it if my belly gets stabbed/ripped open?

BeReady77@lemmy.world to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 15 points –

If someone suddenly attacks me with a pocket knife, for example, they'll most likely immediately go right for my belly, since I am 6'5" tall, and stab or rip it open. Therefore, I'm curious how fatal and painful such a wound is?

24

It depends on what exactly gets cut or punctured, of course, but my understanding is that without proper surgical intervention it can be an exceptionally slow and painful way to die.

The organs in the gut are mostly intestines. You're not going to die just because they've spilled out, but you're going to be bleeding pretty badly and if whatever caused them to spill out is still around then you're pretty screwed.

The bigger problem is that it's unlikely they've just spilled out, they're probably also sliced open. Now you're in serious trouble, because there's lots of blood in there so now you're bleeding really badly. You've also got blood and the content of your digestives system mixing together, and that means some very nasty bacteria which are normally safely contained now have access to your blood.

I suspect the most likely dangerous situation is a stab wound. In that case you'll probably experience internal bleeding. There are no shortage of places for blood to go inside your body around there, including into your digestive system. I don't think there's anything much to stop blood from flowing endlessly into there, and you could bleed to death even if the external wound doesn't look like it's bleeding all that badly.

In summary, getting stabbed in the gut will contaminate your blood and lead to potentially endless bleeding which can't be treated with bandages because it's inside. Even if you avoid bleeding to death, you're probably going to die from a massive infection

Oh, I see.

Do you think the fact that I'm pretty tall puts my belly in a more vulnerable and exposed position in case of a potential attack?

What is happening in your life

“So I’ve got this knife fight scheduled for tomorrow…”

Seriously, WTF?

Writer research

Or DM research, or someone who recently said "I'll just defend myself with a knife" to a friend who knows how objectively stupid that notion is since this isn't The 5 Deadly Venoms.

I don't want to advocate for abstinence-based education, but I do think OP should try and avoid gut-stabbings, especially given his...checks notes... height (?)

I'd immagine at least an 8,759 out of 10.

To give you some context that you’ll be familiar with because of media exposure: the way that disgraced dudes in feudal japan would show how tough and sorry they were is by killing themselves via cutting their own bellies and pulling out their own guts. There had to be someone else waiting for them to screw up and cry about it whose job was to cut their heads off to save everyone else the gross out factor of watching someone die that way.

When movies, books and shows needed to show that someone was both tough and brave in the face of certain death, they’d have em get gut shot as the end of a character arc for easy redemption.

Someone else went into the details about why it’s so bad to get fucked up in the guts so I won’t. But those media and somewhat historic portrayals aren’t lying.

OTOH survival rates for gunshots are pretty decent if you make it to the hospital fast af. Knife wounds are the same.

If you expect to be in a slash and run type attack, I’d say wear an anti-stab vest and know how to quickly call ambulance on your phone.

"There are no winners in a knife fight, it's just a contest of who bleeds to death faster"

I mean, why go for the belly if the kidneys and such are just a little bit further around?