ok here goes! (warnings for medical talk—i’ll do my best not to get too graphic, though, and no photos ofc!) https://twitter.com/clownmoviehell/status/1286832096552660993

disclaimer—i’m not an expert myself; i’m relaying information secondhand from the expert (who wasn’t at the scene of the injury either.) this’ll be as close to accuracy and to best practices as i can get it. ok legal stuff over

SO. let’s start with worst case scenario. things progress exactly how they do in canon—nobody does anything to keep the claw in, which, as we all know from UYOV, is best practices for stab wounds.

his wounds:
stabbed, obviously, slightly to one side, at around the diaphragm, claw is removed, and then he hit the rock pretty hard. he’s still conscious after the impact, though, which seems to indicate a lack of head wound. but that stab is likely right though a lung.

the biggest threat right now is hypovolemic shock, from blood loss.
something to be emphasized: he’s not dying. here’s how he’s going to start dying, though, soon: shock + blood loss will lead to unconsciousness as his body loses functions.

once he’s down, parts of his brain will start to die.
how long will that be?
with the claw left in, he could have as few as 10 minutes. with it out, he could have as few as 5.

so he’s gotta stay conscious. he’s gotta keep himself conscious. (he knows this. he died with his eyes open.)
they aren’t there to help him right now, which isn’t helping his chances. i do want to posit, though:

are the losers assholes for leaving him to go fight? imho, no. a pillar of emergency medicine is SCENE SAFE aka IS THE DANGER STILL PRESENT? aka don’t start treatment on the patient if the room’s still on fire. then you have two patients on fire, and one of them is you.

so remove the threat. clearly they don’t all need to be there to kill it—one person can stay back and stabilize.
here’s what that looks like.
gauze pressed on either side of the wound. (if the claw’s still in, a donut shape around it. if it’s out, just press a wad of something.)

he should be put on his side to control the bleeding. shock means he’s gonna need some major temperature regulation. blankets, if possible. ideally, the wad is gauze and the gauze is taped and he’s receiving epinephrine. ideally. that’s if an ambulance has arrived.

in a town that small, an ambulance could feasibly arrive while he’s still conscious, if whoever’s helping him knows to do the above. rn, what he’s missing most is oxygen. blood loss AND lung damage mean he’s getting nowhere near enough, and parts of his brain are shutting down.

(that is less damning than it sounds. the brain can, over time, retrain back to full function using only what it has left. there are people with 50% of their brain active and 100% brain function. does that make sense? i don’t know, i’m not one of them.)

once he’s in an ambulance, he’s going to be getting oxygen, following the ABCs of triage. his Airways are clear, but his Breathing is fast and shallow, due to shock. and his fuckin lung. Circulation’s not so hot either. by now, he’s hopefully back at the hospital.

if this has all happened in under an hour, he’s likely avoided total system shock & coma. he’s probably in a hyperbaric chamber, for oxygen. probably also getting IV fluids. his wound needs to be packed—you can’t really suture a lung. that sucker’s at 75% capacity now. sorry eds.

there may also be UV treatment to kill bacteria. so he’s stabler than he was in the ambulance—at the doctors’ discretion, he’ll be in surgery for what CAN be sutured. notably, the diaphragm. it’s hard to do bc the diaphragm is in constant motion (it’s what expands and compresses

your lungs!) but if performed laparoscopically, it’s got like a 1% mortality rate (without comorbities but still), bc of the smaller hole. especially since he’s already got a hole there. sorry eds.

once he’s out, most likely it’s just more oxygen, more fluids, rest. we’re past survival, and we’re onto recovery:

it’s gonna take awhile. and there are still things to look out for: while he’s still immobilized, there’s a risk of his lungs being colonized. the body’s taking over healing, and forming scar tissue. to keep movement, he’s gonna need to maintain the skin there. how? lemme tell u:

scar tissue, aka what’s forming over the entire wound site, is MUCH less resilient than normal skin. while normal skin’s collagen structure is aligned exactly where it needs to be pulled, to be flexible, scar tissue’s is ALL OVER THE PLACE.

how do you make sure your collagen’s aligned where it needs to be aligned? the answer may surprise u, it sure as hell surprised me: massage. literally physically pushing it in the directions it needs to be flexible in. keep it moisturized, keep it clean, massage it. a lot.

he’s likely got fractures from the fall, which have healed by ~8 weeks. he’s probably gonna be in bed longer than that, though. this varies from doctor to doctor and i’m not gonna posit a specific period of bed rest—that’s an estimate to be made on a case basis.
but, uh, awhile.

as his brain heals from probable tissue loss, he’s gonna be pretty tired pretty often. (imo Indelicate does a great job of showing how this kind of fatigue forms your routine.) it’ll be slow going.

but, with enough caution, monitoring, and attention to rules—and (looks at eddie) there’ll PROBABLY BE ENOUGH—a full recovery should be possible.

there’ll be lasting soreness, most likely, and a lessened lung capacity, definitely, and a smaller range of motion for quite awhile.

overall, though? he’s gonna be ok. frustrated, impatient, and over-massaged, but ok.

if there’s any takeaway to be had from this thread, i hope it’s that the human body is INCREDIBLY resilient. our bodies are tirelessly working to return to stasis. our healing capacity is a thing of wonder. keep it clean, keep it moisturized, rest. love yalll!!!!!

(and if you’re a medical person and i got something wrong or left something vital out, LMK! always good to learn!!)