Hello all

I'm sure you all spotted it and yes I know there's a mistake in the title, but it leads me rather nicely into my question....

I have a character in my story that has been bitten by a young woman he was attacking and the problem now is one of timing. The wound is an integral part to how he gets caught and I'm wondering how long a really deep bite, one that draws a lot of blood, would take to heal? Would there still be a scar/scab after a couple of months - a mark that would distinguish it as coming from a bite? Or would it realistically heal after a few weeks?

I know I had lots of scabby knees from falling down as a kid, but that was a long time ago!

thanks
kitkat

kitkat,

It would depend on whether or not he had the wound treated. Assuming not, then if the edges of the skin stayed together it would heal on the surface very quickly, but there would still be a hole underneath which would heal more slowly. The danger from this type of untreated wound is that bacteria trapped under the healed skin could develop into an abscess which would grow slowly and then erupt through the skin leaving a comparatively large hole which would then take a very long time to heal, and leave a scar, possibly permanent.

If the wound was kept open it would heal slowly from inside. There would be less danger of infection from anaerobic bacteria, but it would leave a scar for a long time, again possibly permanent, certainly still visible after a couple of months.

If the scar showed the curve of the teeth, it would clearly be identifiable as a bite. I’m not 100% sure of this but I believe forensics have identified attackers from bite marks on their victims.

Dee

Human bites are rather nasty because of the amount of bacteria we have in our mouthes. In fact, if one thug punches another thug in the mouth and in doing do cuts his knuckles on the other guy's teeth (while knocking them out) he may well end up worse off because the resulting wound on his knuckles is technically a bite.

I'm not sure how much this will reassure the guy with no teeth, but there ya go.

Colin M

Hello Dee,

Thank you for your quick reply, it's just what I needed.

Sometimes when I'm writing I don't think things through enough, hence the question. I'm trying to be more thorough and hopefully that will make my writing more realistic.

Thanks again,
kitkat

<Added>

Colin, I think your post came up at the same time I was writing this! Thanks for your input, it sounds like I can comfortably use my initial scenario, which is great.

It might make a difference where on the body he was bitten as well. Eg, areas of the body that have a lot of subcutaneous muscle and /or bone might not damage as easily as say, an ear or a body part more 'supple' (I don't have to spell it out do I?). Therefore the impact marks could be less.
You said she bit hard enough to draw blood. Is this realistic? She would have to bite pretty hard to break the tissue (human skin is surprisingly tough and elastic) - would this be possible if she bit whilst defending herself? Think about it: it's a chaotic, violent scene in which all she wants to do is get this guy out of her face. Wouldn't she just use the classic kick in the nuts to disable the attacker? Can you post the scene? Maybe if we could read it then it will be clearer what the likely outcome would be.

Luke

HI Luke,

Yes you are right, it would make a difference where the bite was.

I'm still working on the scene but the basic idea is that the girl has been drugged (so that would make a difference to how hard she bites) and her attacker is dragging her backwards into a park, with his arm around her neck and his other hand has a knife sticking in her side. He stumbles and loses his grip slightly and that's when she bites down on his forearm.

I had the idea that if someone was biting hard enough and a subsequent struggle ensued as he tried to pull his arm away, then the tearing action would produce blood. I guess this is subject to how strong a grip she has on his flesh, but I can emphasize that at some point.

Does it sound feasible?

kitkat

Yeah it does, but if she had been drugged would she have the presence of mind / strength to bite a chunk out of a forearm? How about biting the lobe off his ear? It could be fun for you to write such a grisly detail (does she swallow it, spit it out like a bloodied prawn?)

And it would leave a permanent disfigurement for your wiley heroine / detective to use to pin the assualt on the bad guy.

Just a thought - but I like the idea of this. How far are you with the book?

L

Not far. I'm at the rewriting stage at the moment, before I get to the serious rewriting and then afterwards a little bit of rewriting for variety!

The problem with this scene is that the wound has to be in a not so obvious place. Somewhere that is easily covered, but becomes apparent towards the end of the story, when the heroine suddenly sees the mark and all becomes clear.

Although the girl is groggy from the drug, I envisage the adrenaline kicking in and it sharpens her senses enough to start the struggle.

k

Didn't Tyson bite someone's ears off in a boxing ring?

Dee

I bit my older sister frequently when we were fighting. You could see the bruises, slightly blurred marks but just the shape of my teeth - I'm sure they could have been identified forensically. I did draw blood at least once, I remember.

Can't offer much expertise, but after I had to re-plot a whole novel because I guessed the mending time of a broken leg wrong, I bought a big nursing text book. Nursing, not medical, because it tells you more about how the patient might be reacting, and things like that. Came in hand when I had to kill off a medieval character with septicaemia.

But I didn't have WW in those days, which would have done just as well.

Emma