Common Medical Blunders

From The Writerium - the wiki for writers

People sometimes make mistakes when writing about the human body.

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The Body

• Every now and then the myth that a human only uses 10% of its brain pops up. This is not true; a human uses every part of its brain at some point, though only 10-15% will be active at a time.
• A hero will be injured by an arrow in a non-lethal area and will pull it out demonstrating superior willpower and strength. This is actually one of the worst things a character could do, because pulling the arrow backwards will cause even more damage. (Unless, of course, the arrow goes all the way through the wound and the head is broken off on the other side before removing the shaft.) An author may also have his/her character deal with an arrow wound by breaking off the shaft while the head is embedded in the body, which would result in the arrowhead becoming loose in the wound and, given the hero in question is likely to be going forth and doing more heroically active deeds, causing internal damage.
• Removing any sort of weapon from a stab wound also results in more bleeding than just leaving it in there. In many cases it's better not to remove, say, the arrow until some sort of bandage can be applied to slow the bleeding.
• Being stabbed or hit with a weapon or blunt weapon could easily result in internal bleeding, as many injuries do. Internal bleeding is essentially bleeding inside the body as a punctured organ or some such. It will take a while for internal bleeding to take its toll, often resulting in vomiting blood depending on the location of the injury. As blood loss worsens, blood pressure lowers, and the victim descends into dizziness, weakness, stupor, then unconsciousness. There will be no easy treatment for internal bleeding in a medieval setting- the best a character could do for the person would be to lay them on their side so fluids can drain from mouth, remove tight-fitting clothing, and keep the victim calm from shock.
• A seizure cannot be stopped and must be allowed to run its course. Holding the character down will only increase the risk of injury for both parties.
• It is impossible to swallow your tongue - the frenulum of the tongue prevents this. When someone is having a seizure and a character puts a stick in their mouth to keep them from swallowing their tongue, they're just making it more likely that the victim will choke on the stick...or break their jaw biting through it, if it's a harder object. The only time an object should be placed inside the mouth of a character having a seizure is if he/she start chewing or biting his/her tongue. The myth of swallowing the tongue during a seizure most likely came from this fact as people can bite off large chunks of their tongues and choke on them. If this is the case, only a large and soft object should be used and as little should be inserted as possible. The character doing this must be careful to avoid being bitten and must be ready at a moment's notice to remove the object to prevent any blockage of the airway.
• Poison is ingested whereas venom is injected. A poisonous animal is one that secretes poison, through the skin or organs, but requires a predator to consume it to cause damage. If, however, the animal has a way to actively transfer the poison (injection through fangs or stinger), it is referred to as venomous. In Earth, there are very few venomous mammals; shrews and platypus are notable exceptions.

Medical Equipment

• Most TV shows conveniently forget that a gel must be applied to the paddles of a defibrillator before use. [More on defibrillators here.] Note, some modern defibrillators (and all Automated External Defibrillators, or AEDs) come with adhesive pads that already contain the gel.

Medical Procedures

• Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: CPR doesn't bring people back to life. CPR is a method to keep oxygenated blood pumping to vital organs when the heart isn't doing it. With very few exceptions, only a defibrillator can restart a stopped heart. If one is nearby, trained professionals and CPR certified persons will get that first. See above for more information on proper use of defibrillators.