Stuffed with lead, or how do people feel when they get shot?

In action movies, we often see how the main character, shot in several places, not only continues to fight evil, but also actively moves at the same time. But everyone knows that movies don't always reflect the real state of things, so we asked — how does a person who was hit by a firearm really feel? (Careful! Shocking content).

As sad as it sounds, there are plenty of people injured from various types of small arms and hunting weapons around. Crime, military conflicts, hunting accidents and cleaning weapons — there can be many examples. Despite the fact that people who have received such injuries do not like to remember such situations too much, some victims still shared their feelings with journalists.

In order not to intrigue the reader, we will immediately say that in most cases, a bullet wound, at the time of application, is not too painful. Deborah Cotton, who was injured in 2013 during the Mother's Day parade in New Orleans, describes her feelings like this:

Meanwhile, the woman's wound was very severe — the bullet hit her in the side, passed from the bottom up and lodged on the left in the chest. Deborah underwent 36 surgeries, during which her kidney, part of the pancreas, most of the stomach, colon and duodenum were removed.

It can be said that the injury was fatal and only emergency highly qualified medical care saved the woman's life. Speaking to reporters at the hospital, Cotton said:

If you think that Miss Cotton is a show-off or is a special case of a person with an abnormally high pain threshold, then here's the story of Ryan Jarcy. The guy survived an armed robbery at home without a scratch, but was disabled due to his own negligence.

When the robbers left Ryan's apartment, he, fearing their return, took a shotgun out of the safe and rushed to the phone to call 911. When he dialed the number, the weapon slipped out of his hand and, reflexively grabbing it, Jarcy pulled the trigger. The charge of the shot hit the poor guy in the shin and the guy described his feelings and emotions quite artistically and accurately:

Making a lyrical digression, we can add that the physical suffering of the young American was organically supplemented by the realization that just 12 hours before the accident, he was discharged from his parents' health insurance, but did not have time to issue his own. Amputation of what was left of his leg and subsequent treatment and rehabilitation cost his family 60 thousand dollars.

The cases of Deborah and Ryan are quite typical — hundreds of people who have experienced the unpleasant procedure of penetration of a bullet, buckshot or shot into the body describe their initial sensations as insignificant or unpleasant, but unexpectedly less painful.

Some compare a bullet hit to a bee sting, others describe it as hitting a baseball bat. Almost everyone with whom the researchers of the question communicated complained of a burning sensation a few moments after the injury. Tia Jamon, who became an accidental victim of street gang fights, told the following about his case:

Deborah Cotton, who is already familiar to us, also tells about the burning sensation that appeared some time after the bullet hit:

It can be noted that the feelings of people at the time of the bullet hitting the body are very similar, but the subsequent relationships vary very significantly, depending on the place of injury. An American lawyer who received a bullet in the kneecap (this is often threatened by opponents in films) was very impressed by the range of sensations that came soon after the hit:

Most often, victims talk about rolling waves of pain, which can be both quite tolerable and off-scale to an extreme level. There are rare exceptions — one extreme, who allowed friends to shoot themselves in the calf with a small-caliber pistol 22 times, said that the pain was quite bearable. He also mentioned that he hopes that if he has to get a more serious injury, he will have some immunity.

The theory that a person can develop insensitivity to wounds in this way is very, very controversial, but it is impossible not to appreciate the contribution of this madman to the research of such an unpleasant and topical issue.

It is especially worth telling about head shots. We are all sure that such an injury is the most dangerous and the chance of surviving after it is scanty. But this is not the case at all — many survive after such injuries, although they suffer from numerous complications afterwards.

A common criterion for all head wounds is severe headache. American Michael Moylan, who, while he was sleeping, was accidentally (!) shot in the head by his beloved wife, woke up from a bullet hit in the upper part of the skull. Immediately after that, a severe headache came and the culprit of the injury took him in her car to the nearest hospital.

Michael, despite the splitting headache, did not believe in his injury until a nurse confirmed this fact in the clinic's waiting room. After the diagnosis was made, the victim's wife, April, disappeared, which leads to doubts about the accident of the injury.

But a headache is not the most interesting symptom, which is accompanied by a bullet in the head. Gary Melius, who was shot with a pistol, told the doctors that at the moment of the hit he heard an extremely unusual sound that he had never heard before and was sure that he would not hear after. The patient compared it to the ringing of a coin in an empty beer can, but as piercing as possible and therefore unreal.

Joab Hodge, who was shot in the head during an armed robbery, described the range of his feelings from an unpleasant event:

It is also important to say that almost all the wounded say that treatment, rehabilitation and subsequent symptoms from complications are much more painful than the injury itself. The lawyer we mentioned with a shot knee said that he was unpleasantly surprised by the duration and painfulness of the recovery process.

He was genuinely outraged at how the recovery from wounds in the militants was shown, because he was not waiting for a couple of bandages and a few walks with a wand with friends, but months of motionless lying and unbearable pain, which he barely endured, despite the constant intake of painkillers.

I would like to tell you about another important factor accompanying gunshot wounds — psychological. Deborah Cotton, a survivor of a serious injury, described her condition after recovery as very unpleasant and unstable and it was not associated with suffering from postoperative pain.

The woman suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder for several months, which affected many aspects of her life. For example, Cotton was surprised to find that she began to be afraid to drive in a car. Driving at a speed of over 35 miles per hour drove her into a panic, which was useless to fight. It would seem — what do shooting and driving have in common?

Summing up this small study, we can say that the stories of people wounded by firearms differ depending on the location of the hit and the severity of the damage. They can be distinguished by the nature and intensity of the initial pain, by subsequent sensations and even by the psychological state of the victim. The recovery period and, alas, the psychological factor also play an important role. Wounds can heal, leaving small scars, and the trauma inflicted on the psyche can remain with a person for the rest of his life.