In movies taking a bullet out of a wound and then putting a bandage on the wound seems to magically cure the wound. Is that all you really need to do?

Question

In movies, after someone is shot they are in great pain or even crippled until someone pulls the bullet out. Once the bullet is plucked out and dramatically dropped into a bowl, the victim seems to be completely fine. Is the bullet being in the wound really the biggest problem? Is it preventing the wound from closing somehow?

In: Biology

Answer 1

President James Garfield was shot in 1881 and died several weeks later. It’s widely believed that what killed him was not the bullet, but rather his doctors’ insistence on locating and extracting it. They kept on probing his wounds with unsterilized fingers and instruments and he basically died of sepsis. He probably would have survived if they had just left well enough alone and let the wound heal around the bullet.