How Sherlock Survived a Cardiac Arrest

[wellingtongoose]

The Most Miraculous Thing

The medical explanation I am about to give for Sherlock’s survival is nowhere near as uplifting or exhilaration as watching Sherlock struggling out the steps of his mind palace with the sheer determination to live for John. If you want to keep thinking about Sherlock’s “revival” as a miracle of love and a testimony to our

Comments

[illereyn]

Thank you for writing this! You've combined two big things in my life - Medicine and Sherlock - into a single post! It's inspired me to pull out my anatomy textbook and atlas. Maybe I should watch Sherlock more so I get inspired to study? XP

[wellingtongoose]

Thank you for the very thoughtful comment

[illereyn]

Yay! Glad to know my anatomy is not so bad.

Fair enough point about the limits of Mary's anatomical knowledge.

[marta_bee]

This was very helpful, wellingtongoose - thanks as always for your meta.

I am currently working on a story set around these scenes, and I will almost certainly be linking to this post. If you don't mind a specific question related to that, I'm trying to work out what kind of symptoms Sherlock would likely exhibit, particularly during the ride to the hospital. You mentioned that a young body can manage blood pressure until it crashes quite hard - what would that look like in terms of symptoms? Sherlock seems to have an oxygen mask on - is this typical after being shot if the bullet doesn't affect the lung, or is it likely a response to him actually struggling to breathe?

Any input you might have on this aspect of things would be greatly appreciated.

[wellingtongoose]

First, his heart rate would increase dramatically. His breathing would also increase but it would be very shallow because of the pain under hi right lung stopping him from fully expanding his lung, so he wouldn't be oxygenating his blood properly

[marta_bee]

Thanks. This is all very helpful, both for the story but more importantly for making sense of how that moment in the episode may have unrolled.

[anonymous]

Thank you for writing this, it was very interesting to read. It's nice to know that Sherlock's recovery was actually medically possible and not just a 'suspension of disbelief' moment.

Your Medical Review

[darkstar1013]

Read your medical review. Thanks so much for the informed information. I thoroughly enjoyed it. >:D Star

[milady_darken]

Thank you for this nice anatomical explenation of why the bullet wound was in a good place ...so to say. I know veterinary anatomy, not so good on the human one. It didn't look like a good spot to me, thoracic wound to the right so it could hit the lung, major blood vessels and the liver. Makes sence if she only got the upper part of the liver and maybe nicked the vena cava.
Considering he was dressed and all, yeah I'll give her that it was a good shot.
Though I do have one nitpick with your analysis, while I have no idea how much anatomy an assassin knows, I do expect a nurse to know where the vena cava is.

[wellingtongoose]

Thank you for your responses.

I would like to point out that Mary knows what the inferior vena cava is but this does not mean she knows exactly where the vena cava runs at the point of the 7th rib which is where she shot Sherlock