Doctors in Western movies are always seen removing bullets, which is based to some degree on standard medical practice in the 19th century. In point of fact, removal of bullets and other penetrating foreign bodies was and is largely unnecessary. If you could push the arrowhead/shaft through and out the far side, this was probably the best surgical treatment. Using an "arrow spoon" would also be feasible, although I don't know if they were in common usage.
When my wife, Crystal, was a teen-age bride (married to her first husband), Pete went out one morning to do some disking. He took along his Ruger Single Six which he kept in a holster wired to the steering column of the tractor. At some point, the pistol fell out and Pete bent over to try and catch it. When the pistol hit the floor, it fired, sending a .22 slug into his upper chest below the collar bone. Crystal drove him into Lordsburg to the only clinic which was operated by an old country doctor whom everyone called Doc Baxter.
Doc Baxter took him into the exam room and Crystal sat anxiously out in the waiting room. After a bit, Doc Baxter stuck his head out and said, "Hon, come on in here." Pete was lying there with a perfect little round .22 caliber hole in his chest. Doc Baxter said, "Hon, see this hole here?" and Crystal nodded her head. He said, "See how he isn't breathing in and out of it?" Crystal nodded again, and he said, "That's a good thing. We'll give him a tetanus shot and you can take him home." She was a bit flabbergasted and said, "Aren't you going take the bullet out?" Doc Baxter replied, "Oh, hell no, Hon. We'd have to make a way bigger hole to get it out. He'll be fine."
Crystal was still somewhat apprehensive, so the next day she insisted that they drive 140 miles to Las Cruces and see her old family doctor. He examined Pete and asked her, "Who treated him yesterday?" When she told him, he exclaimed, "Oh, Old Doc Baxter. He's treated more gunshot wounds than any of us here in Las Cruces will ever see. I'm sure that Pete will be fine."
