# When removing ruined meat from a infected fluid wound, why put the scraps on the patient's arm?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-removing-ruined-meat-from-a-infected-fluid-wound-why-put-the-scraps-on-the-patients-arm/786719
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 16, 2017, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-removing-ruined-meat-from-a-infected-fluid-wound-why-put-the-scraps-on-the-patients-arm/786719 "2017-05-16T05:19:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 11

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![dude\_robert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8e7dd6/32.png) [@dude\_robert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dude_robert)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2017, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-removing-ruined-meat-from-a-infected-fluid-wound-why-put-the-scraps-on-the-patients-arm/786719/11 "2017-05-16T18:06:13Z")

</div>

> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> Gosh, I hate it when the New England Journal of Medicine gets all technical-like. ☹

IANAD, I don’t have a clue about all the various things the structures or processes are named after.

> [@MichaelEmouse](#):
>
> It’s sexier?  
> Or is this question unrelated to your previous one? [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=826099](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=826099)

Unrelated.

> [@Isilder](#):
>
> They were keeping it to measure how much and in case there was some clue as to the problems inside of them. If they put the bits on tissue or on a plate it would be harder to see,  
> and anyway they were doing it for the camera .
> 
> blood clots stop capillaries leaking.
> 
> An infection that destroys an artery is very severe and his arm is least of his worries at that stage. so if there was a lot of blood, they’d just go straight for the leaking artery and clamp it.
> 
> yes a bleeding artery anywhere can cause death… internal bleeding is as bad as external bleeding, but you know they can see an artery bleeding … just the little needle thing to take blood can cause blood stains under the skin.

I don’t know if there was a dangerous artery nearby. I was just thinking that at the end there seemed to be a lot of red liquid pouring out of the hole, although it might have been diluted with other liquids.

How would it be harder to see? If anything, a white plate would be easier to see, because it would be yellowish reddish meat on a white plate, and not yellowish meat on yellowish skin. Plus, what if the skin moved around a bit and the meat fell off? Not to mention it could be dangerous if there were cuts on the skin.

> [@USCDiver](#):
>
> The pink goop is pus and the idea is to get all of it out of the skin. You can clean it up later.

Some people on the comments suggested it might have been packing tape.

> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> I’m guessing he saw it on YouTube and I suspect it wasn’t a doctor but rather one of those home-surgery things YouTube has tons of.

Well, it looked reasonably professional as they had electric lights and white corridors going on there.

Here is the video of a small part of the operation here.

(NSFW) [ItemFix - Social Video Factory](https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6de_1467245219)

You can see at the end that once all of the pink pus/packing tape has been removed, there is a bunch of liquid pouring out that becomes bloody. I am wondering if this is just blood that built up after a long time, or is it fresh blood delivered by a blood vessel?

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-removing-ruined-meat-from-a-infected-fluid-wound-why-put-the-scraps-on-the-patients-arm/786719)._