What Happens When You Get Shot and How to Survive
If you are afraid that you will be shot, you are not alone, and your fears, unfortunately, are justified. Nearly 100 people are killed every day in America. Worse, the pistols and bullets they fire are not the precision weapons that Hollywood makes of them. They are messy and do a lot of damage that you can’t see. Here’s what happens if you get shot and what you can do to save your life or the life of someone else.
Fair warning: the details below are pretty descriptive and may upset some readers. Proceed with caution.
What a bullet does to your body
By now, you probably know that the bullet makes its way into the human body quite well. After all, there is a reason why weapons have not changed much in the past few hundred years: they are effective. But beyond the obvious hole the bullet is making in your flesh, there is a lot more damage going on inside.
First, when a bullet enters your body, your flesh absorbs a significant portion of the momentum that the bullet was carrying. The 9mm bullet, which is typically fired from pistols used for self-defense and police use, travels at about 900 miles per hour. All this impulse has to go somewhere, so thebullet transfers it to your body , causing it to expand and form a large cavity, and then back into itself. This tremor can cause serious damage to your organs and tissues, even if the bullet doesn’t actually hit them.
After the bullet hits your flesh, fate rolls the dice. It is possible to survive after being shot, even several times, but this largely depends on the path these bullets take. Connor Narciso, a former military medic and army green beret who served in Afghanistan, says don’t be fooled by movies and television . One shot in the arm or leg is more than enough to kill you if you’re unlucky.
Why? Blood loss, which Narciso claims is the number one preventable cause on the battlefield (he says about 90 percent of these preventable deaths are due to blood loss). If this bullet hits the brachial artery of your arm, one of the bilateral inguinal arteries in your groin, or the subclavian arteries under each of your collarbones, you experience massive bleeding. Your muscles have built-in defense mechanisms to try to stop them, but this is usually not enough when you have internal blood loss caused by penetrating projectiles like bullets. They cut through arteries and veins without alerting your muscles to danger. In fact, according to Narciso, the myth of non-fatal “bodily wounds” in films is more than far-fetched, and soldiers and police are never taught to disarm in this way.
Another danger, of course, is organ damage that leads to organ failure. If a bullet hits a vital organ, it will tear it apart just like your outer flesh. In addition, bullets can bounce, ricochet and change direction when inside you, which means that a single bullet can hit multiple organs. It is unknown where the bullet will land when it fires at you. However, it is quite possible to survive the shot if the bullet does not hit all of your vital areas. It’s even possible if you’ve been shot many times at the same time – just ask rapper 50 Cent . It’s not how many there are, but where they go.
You ask, what about bulletproof materials like Kevlar ? This can certainly prevent bullets from penetrating your flesh, reducing a lot of internal damage, but you still have to deal with stopping the bullet’s momentum. Think of the bullet as a soccer ball, and Kevlar – and your flesh behind it – as a net. You don’t actually stop the bullet as such, you catch it and it can still do a lot of damage. Plus, Kevlar is only useful against the smaller caliber rounds you’ll find in most pistols. The rifles will go through it. For these, you will need military grade ceramic armor.
What can you do if you or someone around you gets shot?
As stated, surviving a shot is largely a matter of luck. However, there are several things you can do to increase your chances of survival. How does it feel when it happens? Personal accounts range from “intense burning” to “baseball frenzy.” One day I was talking to a girl who was accidentally hit in the shoulder at a party and she said it was like being pushed hard, followed by intense, sharp pain after a minute or two. Of course, many victims say the worst is the feeling that their own warm blood is flooding their entire body . In short, it’s not fun.
When you realize that you or another person has been shot, call 911. You need to call a medical professional as soon as possible. Narciso then says that you need to try to stop the bleeding. Remember that blood loss is what kills most people in this case. So, look for swelling, skin discoloration, and other signs of bleeding , and then try to control this by manually pressing down on the wound or securing a tourniquet high and tight on the limb where the wound is located.
If there is an open bullet wound in the chest, it is important to keep air out of it. Otherwise, you or the victim may develop a tension pneumothorax or a collapsed lung, which will halve your ability to breathe. It is best to cover the opening with some kind of occlusive dressing . This can be petroleum jelly, gauze from the first aid kit, or something that is available, such as duct tape or plastic. Whatever you use, it must be completely sealed, so absorbent materials such as standard gauze wipes will not work. At this point, you need to wait and pray until emergency personnel arrive.
What are the chances that you will actually die from the gunshot?
You are probably intimidated by this moment, but let’s take a look at the statistics. According to the National Security Council , your overall chance of dying from a gun shot this year is roughly one in 514,000. Pretty slender. Over the course of your life, however, this number approaches one in 6,905. But keep in mind that the data covers all deaths from firearms, including suicide, gun and hunting accidents, and homicide and mass shootings. Also, these numbers refer to deaths, not the actual likelihood of being shot. This number could have been much worse.
Even so, victims of firearms have surprisingly high survival rates. Assuming you didn’t shoot directly in the heart or brain (which has a 9 percent survival rate), Dr. Vincent J.M.DiMaio , former chief medical examiner for Bexar County, Texas, and author of Gunshot Wounds: The Practical Aspects of Firearms, Ballistics “. and Forensic Techniques , suggests you have an 80-95 percent chance of survival (95 percent chance if you go to the hospital with your heart still beating). Not too shabby! DiMayo found that about 80 percent of the targets on your body are not fatal areas to shoot, so while the bullet’s path decides your fate, there are many paths that will lead to survival.
This story was originally published in 2017 and has been updated with new information on March 2, 2020.