In the story I'm still storyboarding, a secondary antagonist attempts uses a control panel to lock away some of the good guys in a room and then attempts to pump in carbon monoxide. When the primary protagonist finds and attempts to stop him, he, in desperation, shuts the lid to the control panel and swallows the key. They scuffle, the protagonist wins and attempts to pry the control panel open, but needs the key. Yeah, I'm sure by now you know where this is going. So my question is, what precautions would one have to take before cutting open the human stomach? Would you have to cut it open and let the hydrochloric acid drain out first? How would you drain it if that's the case? Would a metal key survive the stomach enviroment, even for just a short while? Can you even dissect a human being with only a kitchen knife (the intended implement of death)? If anyone can answer these questions or direct me to somewhere that can give me answers, I'd truly appreciate it.
Thanks, this actually helped alot. As far as it being weird and time consuming, I had researched that it can kill you anywhere between two hours and three minutes, depending on the parts per million ratio of carbon monoxide to the natural atmosphere, but then again, that is just Wikipedia research, so I'll look into it more. I chose carbon monoxide because the chamber in which the good guys are being gassed was originally designed to gas the zombies (BTW, this is a zombie story) so they could be examined and studied, and the secondary antagonist is merely repurposing it. Although I'm open to different suggestions if you have any. I'm trying to find out if carbon monoxide poisoning actually causes physical damage to internal organs, because if it does, I'll need to use a different gas that does as little damage as possible.
Where did the hydrochloric acid come from? If you are talking about stomach acid, the stomach doesn't produce it that quickly or in that great of amount. It might get difficult searching for a tiny key amidst the mucus and blood though. Yes, the key would easily survive, especially for the short amount of time it would be in the stomach. If your stomach made acid strong enough to melt hte key, you wouldn't have a stomach. Yes, but as someone mentioned already, it would be difficult to cut through the abdominal wall. Muscles that get lots of use become very tough.
