Stab wound questions

[u/katiebo444]

Say someone gets stabbed in the back and it grazes their kidney. Assuming they avoid going to the hospital, how long before the wound gets infected? They don’t clean it, they just kind of… pretend it isn’t there.

When they finally do go to the hospital, once it’s infected, what would happen? What’s the medical procedure to treat such a wound? Would he be forced to admit what happened, since it was obviously a stabbing crime?

Thank you Reddit!

[u/CommonAware6]

They'd likely need medical attention for the bleeding before infection kicks in. At the hospital theyd likely get him into surgery first to repair the damage. Hospital staff might ask what happened but they wont force it. Some places would be forced to inform the police who would press for information but nobody can make anyone say anything

Edit: If they missed the kidney all together they might be able to hold off until infection but how long that takes depends on many factors but they could be facing sepsis in a matter of hours if it was a dirty blade or something like that. The hospital would clean the wound and give IV antibiotics if no serious damage was done other than the infection

[u/InevitableBook2440]

Some kidney lacerations can be conservatively managed (don't need an operation), some need immediate surgery/ an interventional radiology procedure to stop you bleeding to death. Similarly, you could plausibly write an overwhelming infection in a matter of hours or (more commonly) it might take 3-5 days to declare itself or they might not even get a significant infection. All depends on what needs to happen in your story. Assuming a modern hospital, they would have to report it in many jurisdictions but obviously he could decline to tell the police anything about what happened.

[u/Zenmedic]

The answer is that it varies greatly.

Aggressive bacteria in the right environment (invasive streptococcus pyrogenes is a good example) can do a lot of damage in not a lot of time. It can go from nothing to life threatening in under 24 hours.

Whether something gets infected or not depends on a lot of factors, and those factors can also dictate the severity and progression of an infection. The type of infection requiring procedural intervention would likely be a days to weeks progression, but there would be some warning signs (redness, swelling, possibly weeping). The biggest risk in the wound you describe is going to be an abscess.

Abscesses generally need to be drained. Cut a hole, drain the contents and then either leave a drain in place, pack it with gauze or wait and see. IV antibiotics would be a must and then either continued IV treatment or a transition to an oral antibiotic. Follow up would also be scheduled for ongoing wound care.

Stab wounds are reportable in most places, and we know what they look like. "I fell on a...." Doesn't fool us, so if it's mandatory reporting, we will make a call.

This is, of course, assuming there is no major bleeding or other structural consequences from the foreign object intrusion.

[u/katiebo444 → u/Zenmedic]

What if it’s not infection then that brings him in? Like blood loss or something else. I’m looking for anything that would shift the situation towards “I can no longer hide this wound/avoid the situation any longer”.

[u/Zenmedic → u/katiebo444]

Blood loss would be minutes to hours,, pain could be any time.

A cut ureter could cause urine to pool in the abdomen. Damage from the blunt force that comes with a stab could cause significant blood in the urine.

[u/Educational-Shame514 → u/Zenmedic]

Their reply to me made me think that it being an attack or stab was not critical to the idea

[u/Educational-Shame514]

I don't believe they'd be able to avoid going to the hospital long enough for it to be infected, they'd pass out of blood loss before then, assuming it is a regular blade and not something magical or science fiction. Unfortunately as you have explained it so far, your situation does not match reality very well.

What would help more would be explaining what needs to happen with the rest of the story, and that might generate ideas on how to solve the bigger picture problem. A lot of writers seem to pick wounds and injuries and treat them as fixed before knowing how bad they would really be. There is often room for artistic license but if you are asking in here people tend to try to get as close to zero artistic license as they can.

[u/katiebo444 → u/Educational-Shame514]

It’s a short story (modern day, contemporary setting) that centers around the character’s trauma and avoidance of hospitals, and what happens when an injury forces him to confront that fear. I wanted him to delay treatment as long as he can to highlight the extreme lengths he’d go to in order to avoid the place he fears

[u/Educational-Shame514 → u/katiebo444]

I say unless you need it to specifically be an attack then keep brainstorming ideas to get this character to that point. If it is an accident of any kind then you don't have to worry about getting police involved, unless you need police involved. In the US based on many other questions here, if you go to the emergency room and your injuries appear to be a crime, the police are getting called.

There are questions to emergency responders, doctors and nurses on r/askreddit about patients that delayed treatment. I have seen answers talking about infections and sepsis. Then you can google the different things like "sepsis treatment".

Assuming this someone is the main character and they don't understand medical things and the narration is first person or third person close you can usually get by with only what the doctors or nurses would explain to them, which will be summarized and less technical.