Andi Aquarius
Okay, I
think I've found the right place (but feel free to correct me). I've got a character, late twenties, female, FBI Special Agent, who takes a knife to the hip, which miraculously misses her major organs, so there's no internal bleeding or anything, just a lot of blood everywhere. Her partner is with her, of course, and they get her to the E.R. pretty quickly. What I'm trying to figure out is, how long before she's allowed to go back to work (even just on desk duty)? I only need a doctor's-first-guess ballpark figure, since she's not actually
going back to work.
Let me know if y'all need some more information, or if you happen to have a working knowledge of mostly-untraceable poisons.
Before I type out my response, please bear in mind I'm not a doctor. I have no intentions of becoming a doctor, and I really want nothing to do with the medical profession. However...
First off, what kind of knife are we talking about? Serrated or smooth? How long is the blade? How deep was the knife in her hip? Was the knife left there, or was it immediately wrenched out? How much does the victim weigh, and what is her body type? What kind of clothes was she wearing? What angle did the knife hit her at? How strong was the perpetrator? Guy or girl? How tall? Weight? Height?
These might seem like dumb questions, but they really are important. You see, the fact that there is no internal bleeding doesn't sit well with me. Just because an organ wasn't hit (which I'll go over in moment), doesn't necessarily mean there won't be internal damage. Think about veins. Those could have been hit easily.
Not only that, but depending on the type of knife and how it was used could lead to even more potential damage. A knife with a serrated edge is going to be more difficult to stab someone with than a smooth knife. This is because a serrated knife is going to have more resistance when being pulled from the victim. It would actually take more work from the perp as opposed to a smooth blade.
Consider this as well. Depending on the resistance the knife has (i.e. clothes, tissue, bone, etc), the tip will sometimes break off inside the vic's body. In the case of that happening, it needs to be removed quite fast. Assuming the vic is still moving (although not likely), the tip could get stuck somewhere in the body.
Now, was she stabbed in the actual hip? As in, the pelvic bone? Or was she stabbed in the hip area (about mid-stomach to pelvis)? The former would take quite a bit of work due to the bone, and if this is an FBI agent, chances are she's not going to be standing still. However, if she was stabbed in the hip area, there's a good chance her kidney was actually hit. Now, because you said that the vic's organs are still intact, I'm going to assume that the vic is heavier than the average woman. Consider that the more a person weighs, the more force a perp would have to use to hit something vital. Meaning that a vic who weighs more is going to have a better chance of survival only because it's less likely that a perp would hit an organ.
Knowing the angle of the perp in regards to the vic is also going to be helpful. This helps figure out how much force the perp had to use. Was the perp laying on the ground? If so, it would be about a thirty five to forty five degree angle which would hit the bone, and it would require a considerable amount of damage. Was the perp standing and took a downwards swipe at the vic? If so, it would be a diagonal wound which would probably go from mid-stomach to hip. Of course, where the penetration point happened isn't necessarily going to be the initial knife penetration point.
What was the perp like? Knowing everything about the perp's body and strength could really help figure out how much force this person has. A smaller woman who has never worked out would have more trouble than a taller man who's jacked up on steroids. These are two extremes of course, but hopefully they give you an idea of what we're looking for.
I think once all of this is determined, I can figure out how long she would be off of work for.