The Walking Dead 904: A medical professional weighs in

Injury and Prognosis

My question: “Let’s say there’s a construction accident and someone falls from about 7 feet onto a concrete slab with rebar sticking out. The rebar goes right into the person’s side, right where the spleen is.” (In reality, Rick Grimes fell off his horse, which was spooked by the walkers, and was thrown onto a pile of construction debris that included the concrete slabs with the rebar that went through Rick’s side)

Scenario established, I asked about the likelihood of survival.

The answer, unfortunately, is not what I wanted to hear.

If the rebar went through Rick’s spleen then his chances of making it out of this are not good. Injuries to the spleen, especially if the spleen was ruptured by the rebar, are always dangerous because they’re very bloody and Rick would likely die of blood loss alone. Even under the best of circumstances (meaning Rick is able to be freed and gets to a hospital immediately for surgery) it’s still risky.

It doesn’t help the situation that even if the rebar didn’t pierce his spleen, the longer it takes to receive medical attention the worse his odds of surviving this horrible accident.

There’s a silver lining, though. My follow-up question: “Is there any way you could MacGyver a way to save someone’s life if they sustained that kind of injury in the middle of nowhere?”

It’s possible, though not exactly feasible. If the rebar could be cut and secured, it might control the bleeding long enough to get Rick out of there so that he can receive treatment.

In all of these cases, the blood loss is enough to explain why we’d see hallucinations of Shane, Hershel and Sasha.