From murder/mystery to medical fiction - from trauma, mass casualties, or blunt trauma, surgeon and trauma expert Dr. David W. Page is a writer's best friend. Whether a writer's fictional character is a detective investigating a crime or a doctor racing down the hallways toward an emergency - it's a given that someone is hurt. Credible storytelling is the key to plausibility, and Dr. Page offers the perfect prescription.
Body Trauma explains what happens to body organs and bones maimed by accident or intent and the small window of opportunity for emergency treatment. Learn about what goes on in a hospital operating room and the personnel who initiate treatment. Use these facts and bring a new realism to stories and novels.
Here you'll find graphic explorations of serious bodily damage. You'll be able to work backward, deciding how severe a character's wounds should be and then writing the action that causes the pain. You'll put your characters in harm's way and mistreat them-believability-to within an inch of their fictional lives.
This reference book has much to offer many. Indispensable for the novelist, with gore-filled chapters and multiple car crashes spewing limbs and guts, Dr. David Page's opus will also be treasured by medical enthusiasts, hypochondriacs, and those who like lively bathroom reading. From trench foot to crunched legs, massive hemothorax to flail chests, Body Trauma is educational, comprehensive, and a jolly good time.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Anecdotes, please:
Anecdotes from this author's experience would be more valuable than general statements. What does the injured person feel--what has the doctor heard people say about their injuries? What could other characters see? For example if a person is choked, what happens first? Skin colour? Do the veins pop? How long does it take to die of asphyxiation? Skin colour at death?
If a person has frost bite what does s/he feel? What does someone else observe? How do these symptoms change?
How long can a... more info
A handy, quick reference:
...for writers of murder mysteries and dark fiction, Body Trauma is concise in its detailing of injuries. While not a complete reference for all bodily harm, it is still a great reference for those emergency "I need to know how to describe this wound" moments which can occur in writing. Page's book is a great filler for forensic and basic medical information, but it does have a few draw backs. One of these being the fact that shock and its effects are not taken into consideration. Another draw back is... more info
Unshocking!:
Amazing -- a book about traumatic injuries that neglects any discussion of shock. I've had to borrow my partner's anatomy & physiology text for that part. There's some good basic info here, but I'll need to look elsewhere (& you will too) for detailed information on the kinds of wounds a character might sustain in sword fights or the treatments your characters might receive before the advent of modern Western medical techniques. Better news if your story takes place in the contemporary urban... more info
Wanted more crunchy bits:
There is a lot of good information in this book, but there were several lacks that made it less useful than I would have liked. Number one, it's not that useful if you're writing period fiction. I understand if this was beyond the scope of the author's undertaking, but some historical information would've helped me a lot.
Worse yet, especially as the book goes on, sometimes it begins to seem conventional, or to describe common scenarios, where fiction is concerned with the uncommon. For example, at one... more info
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