How can a person survive injuries which involve dismemberment, ruptures on main arteries or great damage to various parts of body; such as mine explosions, industrial accidents, limb removal for torture? How come they don’t bleed out?

Question

As an M1 student, I am not clueless about anatomy and very basic concepts of natural sciences. Yet I can’t wrap my head around how much damage human body can endure. When an explosion blows the thighs and below away, when something crushes or dismembers your legs or arms, when your neck is slit or pierced; femoral, brachial, carotid arteries should be cut open or squished as far as I can figure. How people survive a ruptured main artery or vein, especially in conditions where you don’t get emergency treatment right away? (Countryside accidents, war injuries, …)

In: Biology

Answer 1

Arteries can vasospasm for hours after an amputation and cause minimal blood loss. It’s not always the case though, and a majority of the time significant blood loss will occur. Field tourniquet is one of the most simple lifesaving devices to have a huge impact on the mortality of extremity injuries.