How do they actually save people who have been shot? I know movies aren’t realistic but most people die pretty quickly from gun shots, so how do doctors/nurses save them?
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That’s going to depend very highly on where they got shot and also sometimes other factors like medications they’re on (blood thinners) or other medical issues they already have. Some gunshot wounds are just not very severe while others are so immediately severe that they can’t realistically be saved.
I work in an ER (in a pharmacy capacity) and also as an EMT. I once spoke with a patient that had been shot twice with her own gun by a home invader, once in the lower shoulder and once through the neck. Amazingly neither bullet hit anything vital, and this woman had so much adrenaline from the event all she could do was excitedly tell everyone that came into her room that she got to ride in a helicopter. In that case, since the bullets had gone through, they were treated like most any other puncture wound would be with bleeding control, antibiotics, and a tetanus shot.
A medication called tranexamic acid is often used to help control bleeding along with physical methods of bandaging and packing the wound. If a patient is on blood thinners they’ll often receive a medication to temporarily reverse the effects of their blood thinner so that their wound can clot. They also replace any blood lost with donated blood and a saline fluid to increase blood volume and pressure
If vital organs were damaged they’ll often use machines to complete those organs’ tasks while a surgeon/specialist repairs the damaged organ
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