Medical stab death question

Factual Questions
1

This is for a novel, not real life:

The (admittedly somewhat implausible) situation is this:

The protagonist finds a dying person in a dark alleyway. The person is unconscious, bleeding to death from a stab wound near the heart (thin type of dagger, since removed) that didn’t actually penetrate the heart causing instant death as it was intended to. The dying person regains consciousness briefly and manages to mutter one word (necessary for a vital plot clue!) and then dies.

Basically what I want to know is how would it be obvious that they would have died? Would they go kind of slack? Would their eyes be open or shut? What sort of signs would there be? I would rather have them be obviously dead rather than just unconscious, so that the protagonist isn’t deserting a dying person when they rush for help, but whatever.

I want it to be as tactful and ungory as possible, but not totally implausible. I realise the muttering-one-word thing may be implausible but I desperately need it for the plot, so am prepared to use artistic licence for that.

2

I’ve seen a person die. It is immistakeable, even to a newbie. The skin loses color and structure immediately; breathing, obviously labored and visible, stops.

This might not be very noticeable in the darkened alley, but wouldn’t there be a strong smell of urine when the sphincter relaxed?

3

Until you tell us the plot point we aren’t saying! :wink:

IANAD but I think just looking at someone at that moment there will be a bit of indecision on whether they have actually died based on a cursory visual inspection in a dark alley.

FWIW though I found this:

You could also have your protagonist check for a pulse.

4

It’s a good start. A penetrating stab wound can kill by cardiac tamponade, where the pericardium fills with blood inhibiting the ability of the heart to beat. The victim could certainly live long enough to utter a word or two before succumbing. I’m not familiar enough with the mechanism of death to be able to tell whether it would be obvious to an untrained onlooker. Is the observer at all trained in trauma medicine, or could you rewrite him to be so trained?

5

As a reader, I would not require that.

A description of a ‘slackening’, in the jaw or the facial muscles, and a hesitation of the protagonist to leave to look for help, would be enough for me.

Unless you could make rain a more than just convenient plot element; an eye not blinking after a raindrop fell in it would work for me.

6

Or he could poke him in the eye! :cool:

7

Thanks guys for all this, and sorry for my delay replying. Had computer death problems which delayed my novel writing.

The plot point is that the dying person needs to be able to gasp the name of the Evil Organisation just before they die, so the heroine - who has found the dying person in the alleyway - gets the Vital Clue.

A slackening would be great. I’m not sure I really like the idea of dead eyes vacantly staring, however if the person was unconscious at first would (a) their eyes be closed and (b) would the eyes open if they regained consciousness to utter the Vital Clue Word and then close again, or could they just stay closed? Or (c) would they definitely open again on the point of death?

If (c) then I think I might keep them open from the start or something. Perhaps they could flicker open as the victim regains consciousness, gasps the word, then relaxes/slackens into death?

Be glad I’m not your doctor :wink:

8

It is extremely unlikely that a person could experience major trauma to the heart, regain consciousness for a moment and utter something coherent, and then immediately die. As a person loses blood, or as their heart begins to fail, their mental state deteriorates due to lack of adequate perfusion to the brain. It would work much better for your story if the person were not aware and oriented, but instead just muttering the evil organization’s name as their awareness deteriorated.

In the field of emergency medicine, there are a few conclusive signs of death. The only sign that takes little or no time to set in is extreme and obviously fatal trauma. A stab wound to the chest does not fit that criteria, but a decapitation (for example) would. The other conclusive signs are stuff that takes too long to fit in your story, like rigor mortis, blood pooling, and putrefication.

On the other hand, there are lots of presumptive signs of death. If a person has no pulse, that is a presumptive sign of death, but not definitive. If a person has profound cyanosis, or is not breathing, that is another presumptive sign of death. If a person is unresponsive to any type of stimulus, including pain, that’s a presumptive sign of death. There are lots of other presumptive signs, like extreme blood loss, extremely low body temperature, stuff like that. None of these are enough for an emergency medical technician to decide that a person is absolutely dead, which is why they’re “presumptive” signs.

A person won’t stiffen up right away as they die, because it takes awhile for rigor mortis to set in. They might go slack as their central nervous system begins to fail, the heart might stop beating (causing blood from the heart wound to just ooze or pour out of an artery wound instead of squirting), they would certainly stop breathing, but even people who have absolutely no chance of ever coming back will do something called “agonal respirations” in which the brain stem sends a signal to breathe, causing an otherwise completely dead person to suddenly “gasp” once, in a way that I’m told is startling as hell to witness. If a person has agonal respirations, they’re dead (not officially, of course, but anyone who saw it would assume it).

I hope some of that info can help you write your scene. It sounds exciting!

9

Have blood spray explosively out of their mouth, nose and ears.