Hi all, I was wondering if anyone could help me out. I've been trying to research a bit about knife wounds and am having trouble working it out. Basically, the character has had someone sneak up behind her and put a knife to her throat, but she was faster and blocked it with her hands. She fought her way out of it, but sustained injuries to her hands from the knife. I'm just trying to work out how long it would take to heal and whether that kind of wound would be deep enough to require stitches. Any thoughts? Thank you!
Hand injuries are tricky. Hands are full of very delicate tendons and tiny muscles. if you damage a tendon with a knife, you're looking at permanent loss of some function and feeling.
We just had a thread on defensive knife wounds, How long to recover from a stab wound? Ignore the baseless argument in the thread. I posted some useful sources on defensive wounds of the forearm and information on what conditions in a wound would require stitches. If you want the character to recover quickly, don't have the wound be too deep. @Bandag is correct, there are a lot of tendons and nerves in the hand that when damaged need specialized repair. And regardless of the misinformation in the other thread, if you sever a tendon you need to repair it surgically, then immobilize it for several weeks at a minimum, usually in a cast or a non-removable splint. Then you need rehab exercises to stretch the tendon which may end up contracted to some degree despite the exercise. But when it comes to writing a fictional story, if you want the wound to heal fast, don't make it deep enough to damage tendons or sever nerves or muscles. If the story calls for some needed rehab and healing time, make the wound deeper.
Basically, the character has had someone sneak up behind her and put a knife to her throat, but she was faster and blocked it with her hands. She fought her way out of it, but sustained injuries to her hands from the knife. When it comes to healing, it really depends on how deep the wounds are and what part of her hands she blocked with. You're pretty much telling us she vaguely blocked with her hands and fought off the assailant. You're going to get random answers.