How fatal is a stab wound?

Question

I'm doing some research for a novel and i thought i'd give this a try. My question is, as mentioned, to the fatality of getting stabbed. Where would the most fatal place to be stabbed? Obviously the heart, but lets face it, thats terribly cliche. My original thought was for the character to be stabbed in the stomache until i realized that that would would not cause a quick enough death, since being stabbed in the stomache would leave you alive for several hours bleeding profusely.

Essentially, my question is two questions.

Where is the best place to get stabbed in terms of fatality?

and

How long would it take to die after being stabbed in a major location? (stomache, neck,chest, face, etc.)

Thanks to anyone who can help.

Answer 1

you aren't sick. you're a writer....you're twisted. anyways....

i can think of two places. the first (and most obvious) is the neck. not your average throat slicing, but a punctured jugular is very life threatening and dying wouldn't take very long. it's one of the largest blood vessels in the body. this is the best.

another one (slower, but something interesting to try) is the femoral artery. it's in the thigh. it's a large artery in the leg that, if left cleeding, will cause severe blood loss and death. i'm not sure about the time frame on that.

good luck with your novel!

Answer 2

Fatal Stab Wounds

Answer 3

How deadly a wound is depends on where the wound is. I saw a man come into the Operating Theatre with 7 stab wounds, he was there a while, but he left and all he lost was blood and some sensation in his hand.

Most trauma can be repaired, depending on how soon you get to a hospital. Severing any major artery will result in death in 5-10 minutes from bleeding out. The most vulnerable one is in your groin, fully severed, you bleed out in about 4-5 minutes. Chest wounds are dangerous if air or blood fill the pleural space between the chest wall and the lung, as this will stop you breathing. Being stabbed in the heart causes bleeding too and can make your heart stop beating as the bag it's in fills with blood and puts pressure on the heart. Organs in the abdomen also bleed alot when damaged, and can often be fatal if trauma is bad enough and takes it about 30-45 minutes to die from this kind of wound.

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
How fatal is a stab wound?
I'm doing some research for a novel and i thought i'd give this a try. My question is, as mentioned, to the fatality of getting stabbed. Where would the most fatal place to be stabbed? Obviously the heart, but lets face it, thats terribly cliche. My original thought was for the character to...

Answer 5

The most fatal place is when the knife stabbed an artery (big blood vessel that come from the heart) and definitly the heart is fatal and then the neck. It's near a heart. A heart is the main generator for blood circulation. It takes minutes. If the stabbed wound in the face area, it takes hours (a lot of tiny blood vessel). The stomach area, it takes minutes sometime hours, depends on how many and kind blood vessel are injured.

Answer 6

There's a physician's book, Nuland's "How We Die" which describes some mechanisms. More to the point are a pair of books by Marshall, "Street Stoppers" and "Handgun Stopping Power," which describe in some rather grizzly details the fatality mechanisms for puncture type weapons. There's bleeding, of course, mentioned by others, with morbidly interesting variants, but also neurological shock. Too, there are the mortal wounds which yet allow retributive actions before the victim expires. Not only is there the issue of where to deliver the wound, but how to do so, and how the victim's movements or skeleton may make difficult the delivery of a fatal wound.

Answer 7

The Quickest death would be heart, neck, or a major artery in the leg or both lungs.

The stomach is horribly nasty death. Not ponly do you bleed but the stomach acid spews out into your body cavity. Bleh. That could take 1/2 hour or less.

Neck...death comes instantly pretty much or within 2-3 minutes depending on how you cut.

Major artery in the leg...well that would probably take a bit longer maybe 5-10 minutes.

Both lungs would fill with blood in about 2-3 minutes and suffocate the victim.

Answer 8

I heard about a guy at my old middle school who got stabbed in The upper chest/neck area from my 6th grade teacher. She said the blood shot over 2 car lengths.
I also heard about a guy on the discover/history channel(i don't remember which) who tried to kill a man with a large knife and couldn't get past the bones/muscles in the chest. Trying to jab through, he broke the knife, found a gun and shot him.
Another thing I heard, definitely on the discovery channel is that back in the day, when guys would get in knife fights in the dark ages, they would still have to defend themselves even after a serious wound was made for at least two minutes.

Answer 9

If you are looking for a non-instant death, but not a long drawn out one, try the major arteries. Femoral is a good one if the injury occurs during a struggle. Jugular or carotid would be a good spot for an attack from behind. I don't have times for bleeding out, but the neck vessels would be faster than the leg. The leg would depend on activity and pressure. If your character is just lying there, it would be a lot longer than if he was running for his life or trapped under something.

Good luck with the novel.

Answer 10

Stomach, lungs, heart, kidneys, liver. Maybe heart would be almost immediate, stomach would take a while (and pain), lungs, don't know, kidneys, probably pretty quick, same for liver. Cut open a major vein in arm or leg and you have maybe 30 munites? Cut the throat and you're finished even if you live a while longer. Right through the eyes or nose and into the brain, probably pretty quick.