Shot in The Shoulder

Hello,

My POV character gets shot in a nerve complex in their shoulder, causing them to forever lose use of their right arm. This is after the apocalypse, so there’s barely any medical help. It takes about two years for them to find a group of people who can amputate their arm semi-professionally. Before then, the wound is occasionally cleaned.

What would happen to their body in these two years? What’s a brief overview of how the surgeries would work? Should I have the arm amputated earlier by those who have never done the surgery before?

Thanks.

 

I'm not a medical expert, but two years is a long time. If it hasn't shriveled up and fallen off by that point, it would likely be mostly healed and amputating it at that point would be mostly unnecessary and a pretty risky procedure.

 

This is my guess as well. Not sure if that injury could lead to a whole-body infection. If so, he'd probably die of septic shock.

 

Thanks everybody, I’ll change when they have surgery done.

 

Probably the wound would be irradiated and quite manageable for up to two years. I'm imagining the stump decorated with a flower, and the fukking do-gooders of the community post-Armageddon folk all interfering and insisting on a surgery ceremony/ rehabilitation.