>In what circumstances could a wound apparently cure itself, then
>develop to a life-threatening injury?
Do you want this for a story you are writing? A lot depends on
time scale -- do you want the victim to get in trouble days,
weeks, months or years after injury?
Tetanus. Rabies. A minor wound contaminated with somebody else's
blood could result in AIDS, hepatitis or other blood-borne disease.
A very small penetrating wound of the body cavity could result in
a fatal infection. If you need to delay the result, I suppose a
wound that didn't quite penetrate could abscess and later open into
the abdomen causing a fatal peritonitis.
A small crack in the base of the skull can leak cerebrospinal fluid
into the back of the throat. If bacteria manage to make the reverse
trip, the person can develop a serious infection of the brain.
I suppose an injury that damaged but didn't penetrate a major blood
vessel could leave a weak spot that might later rupture.
I'm not a doctor -- most of this is handwaving. If any of it is
absurd, I hope the more knowledgable will correct me.
Jens - 15 Jun 2007 11:28 GMT
On 14 Jun, 14:53, b...@cs.toronto.no-uce.edu wrote:
> In article <1181771172.786769.251...@a26g2000pre.googlegroups.com>,
>
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
> I'm not a doctor -- most of this is handwaving. If any of it is
> absurd, I hope the more knowledgable will correct me.
I was thinking of something more prosaic, like diabetes. Suppose
someone steps on a nail. The wound cures itself to the point where the
person is able to walk around without limping. Could diabetes cause a
drastic change in this evolution, to the point that the victim
develops necrosis?
(Thanks for the above input, by the way.)
Jens