My question is - Do you remove/extract a broadhead buried in your muscle, or unscrew it from the shaft/cut the shaft and leave it inside if you are impaled while in the field? If it's in a leg, will the motion of the muscles allow a head left inside to continue to cut as you move, and does that out weigh the risk of removal and increased bleeding? I flat don't know.
I realize that it is situation dependent but for this discussion lets assume that you are 1/2 to1mile walk from your vehicle and then 45min to an hour to a medical facility. No arterial bleeding and the head has buried itself completely into a muscle.
I'm kind of a klutz, as are some of my buddies that I hunt with, and for my own edification/education I'd like to hear some opinions of folks with more medical training than I have. Might come in handy, hopefully not. As I get ready to spend a bunch of time in the field again maybe some advice here will be relevant to a situation one of us encounters.
The thread about the cuts from very sharp knives/blades being almost painless got me thinking about first aid and a story that was told to me by a former client of mine.
A hunter I guided showed me a scar on his calf where a fixed 3blade head had penetrated completely into the muscle. An arrow in his hip quiver worked loose and had fallen out. As he took a step backwards to go around some brush he managed to impale himself . He told me he didn't feel anything but some pressure and almost the sensation of a "pop" as the head went into his leg! He said they decided that instead of removing the head to unscrew it (the insert was still exposed from his calf) and left it in the muscle with a bandage he made from his shirt around. He walked about a mile out of the woods and had it removed at the hospital.
That one story told to me in 1998 has stuck in my head like glue and I can still clearly see the scar on that guy's leg. It scared the hell out of me, and I commonly think about it while walking to my stands with broadheads in my quiver. Never hurts to have some extra vigilance while going afield with very sharp pointy sticks.
