BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Medical repercussions of being shot in the heart.

**Posted by saturnR** January 22, 2014 1:51 pm

Do you think this will be addressed in the 4th series?

I know that he recovered from it in hospital but you can't get shot that close to a vital organ without some sort of long term effect. I know someone who had a wrist operation & it still aches in Winter even though the original ailment was resolved at the time.

Can't help imagining his friends trying to keep him away from "excitement" in case he goes into cardiac arrest & failing miserably They can never stop Sherlock from seeking adventure even if they tried

Last edited by saturnR (January 22, 2014 1:52 pm)

**Posted by Harriet** January 22, 2014 1:53 pm

Do we know he was shot in the heart at all?

**Posted by sj4iy** January 22, 2014 1:58 pm

He was shot in (at least) the liver. He wasn't shot in the heart, which is further up. If the bullet had ended up in his heart, I'm sure they would have mentioned it....and I'm sure he would have been dead, too XD

The liver can heal and even regenerate itself to an extent. The biggest risk of hitting the liver is that the liver is rich in blood supply and you can bleed to death quickly (which was addressed in the episode). Of course, the bullet could have traveled throughout the body hitting other organs, but we have no other information about that, so we can't speculate.

Last edited by sj4iy (January 22, 2014 2:03 pm)

**Posted by Schmiezi** January 22, 2014 2:00 pm

Somewhere here on the forum someone (I think it was TeeJay) posted a picture of Sherlock with the organs visible, like in a medical book. It implied that his liver got hit, but I can't remember which thread that was.

Last edited by Schmiezi (January 22, 2014 2:00 pm)

**Posted by SusiGo** January 22, 2014 2:04 pm

I just looked up some medical charts and it is indeed the liver where he was hit. The problem is the strong bleeding with this sort of injury. The liver, however, regenerates itself so the prognosis should be quite good.

**Posted by Harriet** January 22, 2014 2:55 pm

sj4iy wrote:
... The biggest risk of hitting the liver is that the liver is rich in blood supply and you can bleed to death quickly (which was addressed in the episode). ...

Right. And that is even more right for the heart. It would have killed him in a few seconds if it hadn't been the liver but the heart.
Thinking of that, Mary is not that evil, after all

**Posted by TeeJay** January 26, 2014 2:30 pm

Here's the image I posted in the other thread. The bullet impact is in purple, the liver I've circled in green.

**Posted by kittykat** January 27, 2014 6:49 pm

*reads title of thread*

*sings* Shot through the heart, and you're to blame!

Sorry ^^

**Posted by Ormond Sacker** January 27, 2014 7:12 pm

Oh Great! Now I'm going to have that song running on repeat in my head all week.

**Posted by DollPixie** February 6, 2014 12:52 am

The only person that shot Sherlock in the heart was John. Shot with rejection when John got marriieeddddd.... ANYWAY, yeah with Mary being an assassin and all, I think she knew liver was a good spot to shoot so he would survive. I don't think that there will be much mention of his injury in the next season.