From: clough@texas.net   
      
   Cineshock wrote:   
   > Anyone know how a 19th century cowboy might have treated a bullet wound? And   
   > was a "belly wound" or "gut shot" really the kiss of death, or could someone   
   > have survived if the bullet missed all the major organs?   
      
   Well, any number of folks survived bullet wounds that passed through   
   without causing immediate death. But the chances weren't that great.   
   Aside from infection in a time when there was nothing effective, other   
   than chancing the body's own defenses, look at what's there to be damaged.   
      
   The liver, spleen and other vascular organs often cause death by   
   bleeding out internally. The oftens still do, outside the Level 1 trauma   
   centers. The great vessels, the abdominal aorta and inferior vena cava,   
   if hit, are usually lethal, even with modern transport and surgery. And   
   there are a number of other lesser vessels that will bleed out only a   
   bit slower. A bullet penetrating the bowels has a good chance of causing   
   an devastating infection.   
      
   That's not to say the the body can't sometimes encapsulate a significant   
   infection, but it's a matter of luck, a lot of luck. A surgeon might try   
   to retrieve a bullet, but again, with no effective antibiotics and   
   inefficient sterilization and a dirty setting, great luck was required.   
      
   Cases where someone survived a deep bullet wound that penetrated the   
   abdominal cavity were uncommon enough to make good stories. If they   
   weren't much actively bleeding internally, anything would be possible,   
   but death would be the expected - if not realized - outcome.   
      
   For that matter, folks routinely died of things like infected gall   
   bladders that no one expects to die from today. Abdominal surgery wasn't   
   practical through most of the 19th century. The use of rubber gloves for   
   surgery didn't arise until 1896, and asepsis was far from being   
   achieved. And the major obstacle to abdominal surgery, the abdominal   
   muscles, had to wait for paralytics. Through the middle of the 19th   
   century and beyond, about half the surgical patients died of the   
   operation, much less the problem being treated. Of a great many, it   
   could be said that "the operation was a success, but the patient died."   
      
   Things improved, with the rate of improvement increasing toward the end   
   of century, but such advances wouldn't have been available outside large   
   cities, and an understanding of the urgency required to salvage trauma   
   patients really didn't evolve until fairly recently.   
   --   
                          Gerald Clough   
                         clough@texas.net   
   "Nothing has any value, unless you know you can give it up."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)