Knife Stab: Back & Ribs

The blade slips between the ribs and finds the lung full-on, froth reddens your lips and every breath comes shorter than the last, like drowning on dry land. The doctor works by lamplight to drain the chest, and whether you see morning is a question he won't answer out loud.

• Each breath a shallow, whistling fight
• Propped upright day and night, lying flat is drowning
• Blood-flecked froth at the lips when you cough
• /me sits bolt upright against the wall, lips grey, counting each breath

Recovery Weeks abed if the doctor's drain and your luck both hold; without him, you drown by inches.·Doctor, urgently

The point nicked the lung, part of it folds like a wet paper bag and pink froth flecks your lips when you cough. The doctor binds the chest, props you upright, and makes it plain this is a fight you have in bed or not at all.

• Confined upright in bed, no walking beyond the room for 7 days
• Speak in short sentences; long ones cost too much air
• A wet, careful cough you can't hide
• /me muffles a cough in a kerchief and folds it away before anyone sees

Recovery 3 weeks of doctor-watched rest to breathe easy again; untreated, the lung can fail entire.·Doctor, urgently

The blade drove low through the back muscle and reached the kidney, you know it the first time you pass water and it comes away red. Era medicine can only watch and wait: bed rest, water, and the doctor checking the pot each morning like a man reading tea leaves.

• Strict bed rest, no riding, no lifting, walk only indoors for 7 days
• Blood in the water, less each day if you behave
• A deep flank ache that doubles you when you twist

Recovery 3 weeks of rest and water until it runs clear; push it early and you set the bleeding off again, worse.·Doctor required

The blade cracked a rib and drove deep into the thick muscle a finger's width from your backbone. For two terrifying days your left foot tingles and drags, bruised nerves, the doctor says, not cut ones, and you've never been so glad to hurt.

• Pins-and-needles down one leg, dragging the foot for 2 days
• Back bound stiff, no bending at the waist for 5 days
• No riding for 4 days
• /me walks stiff-backed as a preacher, turning their whole body to look behind

Recovery 2 weeks with a doctor's binding and rest; untreated, the deep muscle knots wrong and aches for a season.·Doctor required

The rib did its one job, the blade skidded along the bone and carved a deep gouge following its curve instead of slipping through. A long ugly channel that needs cleaning and stitching, and a rib that complains about the service.

• A curved stitched gouge following one rib
• No twisting at the waist for 4 days
• Deep breaths pull the stitches, laugh at your own risk

Recovery 8 days stitched and swabbed with carbolic, 12 crusted and cranky without.·Doctor required

The point struck your shoulder blade square and chipped it, all that murder stopped cold by one flat bone. The arm on that side aches to raise, and you'll hear the doctor's grinding probe for the chip in your dreams.

• Don't raise that arm above the shoulder for 5 days
• Deep bone-bruise ache between the shoulders
• /me reaches for a high shelf, stops halfway, and uses the other arm

Recovery 10 days with a sling and sense; 2 weeks without either.·Doctor required

Deep into the flank muscle and through nothing that matters, the doctor probes it, pronounces you the luckiest fool in the county, and packs it to drain. A hand-span in any direction and this would be a different table.

• Packed and dressed daily for 4 days
• Twisting to look behind you costs a sharp gasp
• No hauling or heavy lifting for 5 days

Recovery 9 days draining clean, or a festering fortnight if you cork it early.·Doctor required

The stab was bad; the pull was worse. They twisted the blade coming out and left a ragged channel through the back muscle that the doctor has to trim before he can stitch it.

• A ragged, angry wound under the shoulder, dressed daily for 4 days
• Sleeping on your back is off the menu for 5 days
• /me eases their shirt off one careful sleeve at a time, teeth gritted

Recovery 10 days with a doctor's trimming and silk; toughed out, it heals proud and knotted.·Doctor required

The point hit a rib at an angle and skidded, plowing a shallow gouge across your back instead of sinking in. Bloody, dramatic, and honest work for one bandage and a stiff drink.

• A hand-length gouge across the ribs, scabbing tight
• Stretching tall pulls it open for 3 days
• A scar that looks far more heroic than the story

Recovery 5 days wrapped, 8 if the scab keeps cracking.·Doctor advised

The blade caught the thick muscle beside the spine, shallow but mean. Every turn of your head pulls it, so you spend the week swiveling like an owl that's seen too much.

• Turn your whole body, not your neck, for 3 days
• Sharp catch between the shoulders when you reach up
• /me rotates stiffly from the hips to glance at the door

Recovery 5 days, 7 if you keep forgetting and turning fast.·Doctor advised

The blade spent most of its anger on your coat and only the last inch on you, a shallow cut across the ribs under a very dead lining. The coat looks murdered; you just look annoyed.

• A shallow stitched cut over the ribs for 3 days
• A coat lining hanging out like an untucked shirt
• Tender when the gunbelt strap crosses it

Recovery 5 days; the coat is a job for a tailor or a funeral.·Doctor advised

A shallow puncture over the ribs and a rib bruised deep beneath it, the era's most common souvenir of turning your back on the wrong man. Breathing's fine; laughing, coughing, and sneezing are all filed under regret.

• Wince-and-grab with every cough or sneeze for 4 days
• A small dressed puncture between two ribs
• Trust issues, freshly restocked

Recovery 6 days for the bruise to quit; the grudge keeps.·Doctor advised

The point barely broke skin but the blow behind it hammered your flank over the kidney. You pass water gingerly for a day, find it clear, and thank whatever you pray to.

• Deep flank bruise, purple as a storm by morning
• Twisting and bending grab hard for 3 days
• /me presses a hand to their lower back and arches with a hiss

Recovery 5 days of stiff.·Doctor advised

A shallow scrape across the back where the blade glanced off leather and bone alike. It stings when your shirt shifts, and that's the whole indictment.

• A scabbed scrape across the ribs for 3 days
• Shirt sticks to it once and you learn to dress it

Recovery 3 days.·No doctor needed

The point caught your suspender strap and rode it sideways, leaving a red scrape instead of a hole. One strap now hangs by threads, doing its best impression of your luck.

• A red scrape along the shoulder blade for 2 days
• One suspender held on by hope

Recovery 2 days, and a trip to the general store for hardware.·No doctor needed

The point stopped dead on bone like a knock at a locked door, a small cut, a big bruise, and a rib that took one for the whole outfit. Hurts to poke, so folk keep poking it.

• A coin-sized cut over a bone bruise
• Flinch when anyone claps that side for 3 days

Recovery 4 days of tender.·No doctor needed

A shallow drag across the back as you spun away, you didn't even feel it until someone pointed at your shirt. More laundry problem than wound.

• A thin scab across the back, itchy in 2 days
• A blood-striped shirt for the rag pile

Recovery 3 days.·No doctor needed

Your heavy winter coat swallowed the blade near whole, wool, lining, and a folded newspaper in the pocket. The point kissed your skin just enough to prove the story true.

• A pinprick and a bruise, gone in a day
• A stab-hole through yesterday's news, worth framing

Recovery Overnight.·No doctor needed

Some animal instinct turned you at the last half-second and the blade skated across instead of in, a welt, a scratch, and a face you'll never forget seeing over your shoulder. The knife got nothing; you got a name.

• A raised welt across the ribs for a day
• You saw exactly who did it

Recovery A day for the welt; the reckoning takes as long as you like.·No doctor needed

The blade meets your rib square-on and snaps at the guard with a sound like a dry branch, you heard it break before you felt the bruise. You pick the tip up out of the sawdust and have it drilled for your watch chain; whoever swung it is now holding a very expensive handle.

• A rib bruise, tender for a day
• A broken blade-tip charm on your watch chain
• /me turns a snapped knife tip over in their fingers, unimpressed

Recovery A day. The story appreciates in value.·No doctor needed