Stabbing! Where should it hit?

if he doesn't turn around then in the back or side , or both with stabs puncturing the lungs, blood will fill the lungs , they can collapse, he would require surgery, putting a tube in the lungs to drain out the blood. blood transfusion as the puncture heals.
speaking from personal experience.

I know you are focussing on the situation after the stabbing but you have witnesses and what will determine where and how the stab strikes is the height and position of the assailant and how he uses the knife.

Good luck

Trick Shadow-Walker said:

That could definitely work, thank you! Why only if he doesn't turn around?

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well it can work, I was only thinking about how this attack did go down.

Upper torso where there is concern of a major artery being hit and with a lung punctured. Can go either way, EMT will play it safe and assume an artery was severed, blood in lungs and aspiration can lead to unconsciousness fairly easily.

Angry people tend to stab overhand, down at a victim. Killers will use a knife underhand, going for serious organ damage. Kidneys will cause shock quickly and it's easier to penetrate into the thoracic cavity when you're stabbing up under the rib cage than trying to stab through it.

Jeff

If I was going to stab someone and wanted them to die a horribly painful death I'd slide the knife in at an angle between the eight and ninth ribs at approximately a 60 degree angle. This should cause a pneumothorax and injure the Corina, which is the thing that makes you cough when you get water down your throat. The bleeding should cause consistent, violent coughing. That combined with the pneumothorax should kill someone in a painful dead minutes or so.

Not that I've put any thought into this.

I would add to WeaselFire's comment, that if the attacker is trying to conceal the knife they would likely use an underhand blow as well. It's faster and more discrete.

Imagine how you would stab someone if you came up from behind. You keep your arms at your side so as not to reveal your intent, fingers hiding the edge. Then drop the knife into your hand and poke. Overhand is far too dramatic, but that's just my thoughts.

I'd add that if he's attacking from low, especially if the person turns around, that a hit to the inner thigh could be very life threatening if it nicked the femoral artery. It's also pretty close to the bottom of the swing, so it's feasible. IMO.

Lots of bleeding, and would require some medical tools to fully stop that an EMT just wouldn't be carrying off duty.

Nivarion said:

I'd add that if he's attacking from low, especially if the person turns around, that a hit to the inner thigh could be very life threatening if it nicked the femoral artery. It's also pretty close to the bottom of the swing, so it's feasible. IMO.

Lots of bleeding, and would require some medical tools to fully stop that an EMT just wouldn't be carrying off duty.

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Eh, in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit we used to stop bleeding femoral arteries by holding a clenched fist firmly in the groin for 15 minutes, take a peek to see if the bleeding has stopped, then put a bag of saline on it to continue to hold pressure. That almost always worked. The femoral artery is fairly easy to control, unless the thing gets shredded, and then there's not much you can do.

If I were going to write a stabbing injury that involved blood loss, loss of consciousness, and eventual recovery, I'd use the old left lower chest approach, right around the nipple line. If you're at the nipple or above, you're more likely to just get lung. It's difficult to get a knife into the pleural space, because the ribs get in the way, but even a small nick in the lungs can cause damage.

One of the more dramatic lung injuries is the tension pneumothorax. See the move "Three Kings" for a fairly good example of one. The victim becomes more and more short of breath until he/she passes out from lack of oxygen as well as compression of the heart. Unless a tube is placed into the pleural space to re-expand the lung, the person's gonna die. Your EMT could just happen to have a 14 gauge IV catheter (it's NOT farfetched, you wouldn't believe how many nurses/paramedics carry those suckers around, just waiting for a chance to use them) and jab it into the second rib space, just to save your victims life.

Just some food for thought.