I read a Newsweek article many years ago about a boy in Kosovo (I believe) who was shot in the stomach by Serbian gunmen, and the article went on to state that being shot in the stomach causes immediate, intense thirst - and so the boy began begging his mother for a drink of water.
I am curious how this mechanism works? Other than that being shot in the stomach would cause intense pain (which I would have thought would be a more pressing issue than anything else,) why exactly would this cause thirst?
A loss of fluids and blood volume make us thirsty? That’s all I got.
No mention of a shock wave traveling through the fluids of your body stimulating a thirst reaction here.
Do you mean the stomach, or the abdomen?
Regards,
Shodan
Thirst is a symptom of shock not sure why (or if anyone knows for that matter)
Coming from a surgeon -
You’ve got to take all the fake news out there with a big grain of salt.
One of the major stress hormones is ADH/ vasopressin Vasopressin - Wikipedia
ADH or antidiuretic hormone senses when your blood volume is low, or sodium content too high, and drives thirst. Long term (over span of hours or days) drinking more will increase your blood volume.
Short term, vasopressin is a very effective vasoconstrictor to sustain blood pressure after something bad like getting shot. But shouldn’t really make you want to take a swig of water.
The typical response to trauma to the gastrointestinal tract is for things to shut down. Most patients lose desire to eat and drink, not to mention get nausea and vomiting.
The urge to drink after getting shot would be a very atypical response. Then again, people do silly things every day…
I’m pretty sure the Newsweek article meant the stomach, as in, the digestive organ itself.
Thanks for the info. 
Incidentally, this makes me wonder about the claim in Dan Brown’s book,* The Da Vinci Code*, whereby he claims that getting shot in the stomach will lead to one being slowly poisoned to death from within as stomach acids enter the bloodstream.
Incidentally, this makes me wonder about the claim in Dan Brown’s book,* The Da Vinci Code*, whereby he claims that getting shot in the stomach will lead to one being slowly poisoned to death from within as stomach acids enter the bloodstream.
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Yet more silliness. Poisoned from eventual sepsis, but not actual acid.
Yes, if your stomach acid went directly into your bloodstream then that would cause massive shifts in pH and kill you quite quickly.
But the more likely mechanism is that the acid and undigested cheeseburger spills into the rest of your abdominal cavity and causes a massive inflammatory response in the rest of your gut. The SIRS response may ultimately kill you if you don’t get treatment.
The most likely cause of immediate death from a gunshot wound to the abdomen is bleeding out.
People can potentially live for days with a leaking hole in the gut before ultimately succumbing to sepsis.
I’ve heard the same thing re: hunting; a gut-shot deer supposedly will seek out water.
Do you need an answer fast?
“Dan Brown” is “clueless idiot” spelled sideways.
Zero of what he writes has the slightest basis in reality. Nothing military, nothing logical, and nothing biological.
In some sense it’s encouraging in that if that useless hack fool can make millions I might be able to also. In the other, larger, sense it’s discouraging because he’s proof positive that TBTB in mass-market publishing are blithering idiots. As are their customers.
Bottom line:
Dan Brown’s writing is like Rod Stewart’s singing. It’s a wonder he wasn’t immediately shot by the police for impersonating an entertainer.
it’s a at least semi-popular theory in popular culture. I don’t remember when I first heard it, but I do remember knowing a character in Hill Street Blues was about to die from internal hemorrhaging (wheel-chair bound individual who’d be struck by a car, IIRC) when he was suddenly very thirsty. So I was aware that that was supposed to be thing, but I don’t remember when I ‘learned’ it.
Deer will usually go to water if the archer makes a bad shot and hits him in the gut. I have no idea why but it does lend some credence to the story I would think.