Movies and TV shows show people vomiting blood in various ways... Is it really reasonable?

An actor's self-cultivation includes not only crying scenes but also vomiting blood!

In "How We Met Your Majesty", the heroine often vomits blood due to poison. Her pale face and the bloody corners of her mouth make her look even more pitiful.

In The Untamed, the male protagonist was injured, and the other male protagonist pretended to take off his pants in order to make him spit out the remaining blood. Then, a mouthful of thick blood the color of menstruation gushed out.

In "Guardian", for the sake of the touching brotherhood, the male protagonist desperately stood in front of another male protagonist, and his chest was hit hard, and blood spurted into a small fountain (don't say, this color is pretty good~)

Vomiting blood during a fight, vomiting blood due to poisoning, vomiting blood due to illness, vomiting blood due to despair... To put it in an exaggerated way, if an actor has not vomited a pound or two of "blood" in a play, he dare not say that he has been an actor!

But in real life, do fighting scenes with “blood splattering and spurting out” really exist?

Are there any scientific basis for those scenes in movies and TV series where people vomit blood at any time? Today, let's find out!

The blood spit out from the mouth should come from the oral cavity, respiratory tract, digestive tract and other places connected to it, but the amount of bleeding and the way of bleeding vary greatly depending on the bleeding location.

Oral bleeding

During a fight, a slap in the face can indeed cause damage and bleeding to the gums, tongue, oral mucosa, etc.

But normally, when there is blood in your mouth, you either swallow it down or spit it out like spitting, and there will be no bleeding from the corners of your mouth. Unless, you were knocked unconscious and there was a lot of bleeding in your mouth.

But think about it, you are already unconscious at this time, you can only bleed, you will not vomit blood.

Respiratory system bleeding

Theoretically, bleeding in the respiratory system will not cause vomiting blood, because the lungs and trachea do not have reverse peristalsis, so it is naturally impossible to vomit or spray blood. When blood blocks the trachea, it can only be coughed out, which is coughing up blood.

When some acute trauma occurs, such as gunshot wounds, knife wounds, collisions, and rib fractures, bleeding may occur in the lungs, bronchi, and other parts of the body, resulting in coughing up blood.

Many TV dramas feature some images of patients, such as a tuberculosis patient coughing up a handkerchief of blood. This is correct. Respiratory diseases such as bronchiectasis, lung cancer, pneumonia, etc. may also cause coughing up blood.

But relatively speaking, the amount of bleeding from hemoptysis is less than that from vomiting blood and spitting blood.

Digestive system bleeding

Vomiting blood is the real vomiting of blood, which refers to the vomiting of blood through the mouth due to bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract such as the esophagus, stomach, duodenum, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, etc.

In reality, the possible causes of acute gastrointestinal bleeding include: esophageal perforation, accidental ingestion of sharp and hard objects, gastric ulcer, gastric perforation, gallstones, cirrhosis or advanced liver cancer, etc.

However, vomiting bright red blood from the mouth as shown in movies and TV dramas rarely happens, because the blood will react chemically with the contents of the stomach, and the vomited blood may turn into brown or coffee color.

Only when the amount of bleeding is very large and the blood stays in the stomach for a short time, it may be dark red or bright red, or accompanied by blood clots, such as when some arteries rupture and the bleeding is very rapid. If the bleeding is relatively small and not urgent, vomiting blood generally will not occur.

I would like to emphasize here that only bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract will cause vomiting of blood. Generally, bleeding in the lower gastrointestinal tract will not cause vomiting of blood. Even if the intestine is stabbed with a knife, the blood will not flow back into the mouth and be vomited due to the action of the stomach and diaphragm.

In TV dramas, vomiting blood is usually attributed to internal injuries, such as injuries to the heart, liver, spleen, pancreas, and kidneys. This is even more unreasonable because when these organs are injured, the blood will enter the abdominal cavity and cannot enter the digestive tract.

In general, a scene where someone vomits blood after being slapped, hit with a stick, or stabbed in the chest or abdomen is impossible to actually happen in reality!

Take "Sito" as an example. After the male protagonist learned that the female protagonist was "dead", in despair, he turned into a sprinkler truck, and his blood was able to nourish the grass and trees within a radius of 3 meters.

In fact, despair and extreme anger can cause vomiting blood. Studies have shown that when a person is under strong mental stimulation, the sympathetic nerves are overexcited, which can lead to increased blood pressure and increased gastric acid secretion, which may cause mucosal damage and thus vomiting blood. If the person is in poor health and has suffered from digestive tract diseases, the risk of vomiting blood may be higher (in reality, the probability is still very low).

However, the blood spraying scene in movies and TV shows, which is like a sprinkler truck, is impossible to exist, even if the amount of blood is super large. This is because blood spraying also requires the condition of high air pressure. Without a large air pressure difference, blood will not spray out like this.

When you see actors about to spray blood, they first tighten their lips and puff their mouths wide, allowing the blood to quickly come out of the small opening. This is how the required pressure difference is achieved, allowing the blood to spray out in the form of mist...

So we can just watch the vomiting and spurting of blood in movies and TV shows, after all, it’s because of the plot!

Art comes from life, but it is higher than real life. It is understandable that some TV dramas deviate from reality for the sake of plot effects, but TV dramas involving serious themes such as medical treatment should consider both artistry and science, otherwise it is easy to mislead the audience.

Source: Doctor Youlai