Can a person survive a bullet to the heart?

Answer 1

Yes, and many people do.

It depends of availability of medical care, and where the shot come. Slight gunwound

will heal almost without care. If major vain is shot, the death will come in matter of minutes, to bloodloss. Headshot with heavy ammunition is usually deadly.

Answer 2

Yes, in fact, a bullet to the shoulder is probably more survivable than a bullet in other places. A bullet will kill you (basically) in one of two ways: by hitting a vital organ and causing enough damage that it cannot be repaired by surgery or you die before you get to surgery, or by causing a person to bleed until they die (again, assuming the damage cannot be repaired or assuming the person doesn't get medical help quickly enough).

Answer 3

It all depends on the type of bullet, the velocity at impact and exactly where and what the bullet impacts and damages. People have had their entire lower jaws, noses and much of their face shot off by bullets, it is actually quite common, but these are somewhat angled impacts. Most likely, if you were impacted straight on by a bullet of any caliber within their effective range in your upper cranium (essentially where your brain is), you would die immediately due to massive damage caused by the bullet entering, passing through, and exiting your brain. Smaller caliber bullets such as .22 inch in diameter ones would enter your skull and literally ricochet around inside your head, causing massive brain damage. Higher caliber bullets such as .45s (inches) and .50s (inches) could and often do blow people's heads off, an injury widely accepted to be unsurvivable. That's not saying people haven't survived shots to the head, though. Every once in a while, there may be a freak occurrence where the bullet would be placed perfectly where it would cause immense damage, but not enough to be fatal. In these situations, the victim would most likely be left alive but largely incapacitated. Once again, it all depends, but I wouldn't go around trying to find out first hand.

Answer 4

Yes. If a bullet doesn't hit a vital part of the brain and infection doesn't cause death, then a person can survive. This person however can be a "vegetable" with minimal brain activity.

Answer 5

Yes. Doctors can repair the heart muscle if it's not totally destroyed. They can do open-heart surgery, and even replace the heart if there is a donor heart available.

Answer 6

Extremely unlikely. Even a glancing impact with a large caliber round could cause a fatal head wound. A direct impact would be gruesomely lethal in the vast majority of cases.