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Can a splinter enter your blood stream and cause serious damage?

97K views 21 replies 17 participants last post by  speedofl33t 
#1 ·
Obviously, in tshtf...little things are going to be a lot more precarious because lack of medical care, antibiotics, medical tools, etc... Can all add up to make what would normally be a minor issue something deadly.

But this one I can't find out if it is fact or myth:

Can a splinter enter your blood stream and kill you if not properly treated?

I was walking through our kitchen tonight barefoot and YOUCH!!! :eek:

I stepped on some kind of splinter. Earlier today while washing dishes a friend of mine broke a wine glass while washing dishes... So my first thought was glass splinter.

My wife is old school. She learned from her mom how to take a splinter out with a needle... And over the years she has taken many splinters out of me. But tonight... For some reason this splinter just wasn't coming out. She tried digging and digging...she could see it and feel it... But for some reason it just wouldn't come to the surface. Giving up for my wife means using tweezers... But she finally reached the point she'd even try tweezers. Still no luck. It was just in too deep. Then she came up with an idea... She had me soak my foot in a tub for 20 minutes... Then she took a three cc syringe and cut the top off. Then she put the syringe directly over the hole and pulled the plunger all the way back to create a suction. After a minute or two she took it off and it must have worked because now she could get more at the splinter and work it up and up...and the victory... She got a hold of the end with the tweezers and pulled it out. I was surprised. I thought it would be itty bitty...and it was itty bitty... But it was a lot bigger itty bitty than I thought it would be. I thought she couldn't get it because it was too small...but it was actually an ugly little sucker. And then it started gushing blood. I was dripping blood all over the floor. That's when I realized it had to have been lodged in the wall of a vein or artery.

That was when I remembered some old story about a kid who got a broken piece of needle in his leg...and it worked it's way around and really screwed his leg up. But when I tried to Google splinters on the Internet... I got as many myth conclusions as I got fact. So which is it... How bad can a splinter really be?
 
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#3 ·
It could happen if it were in a vessel when it entered the skin, a small piece could travel through and get lodged in the brain, heart or lungs causing a pulmonary embolism. Most likely though even in the event it was in the blood stream it would get trapped in a capillary somewhere like a hand or foot and cause issues and tissue death locally.

But you'd have to be extremely unlucky for that to occur, a more likely scenario would be it causing a massive infection and you die from septic shock/blood poisoning.
 
#7 ·
I would think infection is the greatest danger. I wound up with a major infection from posion ivy requiring some strong antibiotics a few years ago. If this had happened before the days of penicillin, I would have probably been a goner. More likely to have rays get through a tin foil hat than a splinter getting in the blood stream. Curious if anyone has heard of that happening?
 
#8 ·
Not quite a splinter, but I had a shaving of copper wire work it's way from my fingertip to my knuckle, where it got jammed and caused an infection.

First I knew of it was when my knuckle went green(from the copper verdigris) went to the doc and he took a scalpel to my hand and pulled the copper piece out.

He said he has seen similar with metalworkers where the shavings have moved from their feet or ankles all the way to the kidneys - caused similar issues to kidney stones and surgical intervention required.

Apparently it is because the shavings have a corkscrew shape and will move as the muscles flex....

Wooden splinters may move, but infection/sepsis would be more of an issue than movement.
 
#9 ·
So far I've never died from splinters. And I had more than my fair share. If they still stick out some or are easy to reach, I pull them out or I try to get them out if they cause me discomfort. If not, I just let them be and they all came out by themselves. Small ones will probably not cause any severe infection unless you're unlucky. Poking around might though.
 
#10 ·
Some definitely have to be treated with antibiotic cream if they get infected. I got an infected splinter years ago, so now I will always go after them with tweezers.

Also, if tweezers aren't handy, or if there isn't much above the surface to grab onto, use some sticky tape to try and get the sliver to stick to the tape, then simply pull it off.
 
#12 ·
Very unlikely and with things like this I always turn to what Mom would recommend - soak it in salt water. Warm salt water really draws infection from the skin and anytime we have a splinter we get it out and then do a couple soaks with salt water. Really works.
 
#13 ·
I had always learned that something like a splinter actually got pushed out of your body over time naturally. The only real risk is infection unless it somehow sliced up an vein. Porcupine quills are different though. Because of their shape and design they actually work themselves in. A friend of mine who works with the SPCA once had one get stuck in her and come out a bit further up. Looked like a piercing a celt would get.
 
#14 ·
It is theoretically possible but not probable
Several thinngs can happen with splinters
They can stimulate a tissue reaction and be walled off and surrounded as a foreitn body granuloma
they can cause inflammation and an infection like a cellulitis or abscess.
they can rerely be spontaneously walled off and extruded.
Infected splinters can cause a bacteremia which can permit septic products (emboli) to travel to the heart and cause infection of the valves(endocarditis)
 
#16 ·
Oh yeah! This was a simple cactus prick on the OTHER thumb (weird). Turned into MRSA staph. Very nearly had to report to the hospital every day for IV for weeks. Luckily 2 rounds of Anti-biotics took care of it. I rarely take them-maybe every 18months ago. I also kiss dirty girls and eat candy off the ground, so my immune system is up.









 
#17 ·
Yea.. any wound can cause infection. We have a lot of bacteria living in our throats and on our skin that are usually harmless. Lots and lots. Usually with wounds nothing happens and we're OK. In rare cases those bacteria can really cause bad stuff. MRSA and even flesh eating. If you're unlucky it can happen from just getting scratched by a branch. But I wouldn't spend time worrying about it. Normal wound care and hope for the best.
 
#18 ·
The skin actually has a way of slowly pushing foreign objects out of it. It takes awhile but it does it on its own. If the splinter somehow managed to insert itself perfectly into a vein I would say that god just pressed the smite button on you because the odds of that happening are so low as to be nearly impossible. Not saying it couldnt happen but I hightly doubt it ever would.
 
#20 ·
A sliver will attract pus, the body's attempt to surround the sliver to protect surrounding tissue, dissolve it down and flush it out.

It may take several hours to several days to begin to see a sliver pus pocket develop.

With a clean needle, the pustulate can be poked and fluid expelled, usually with the sliver...it make take more time and more poke and sqeezings to rid a deep sliver.

If their is not an easy exit for the pus/sliver soup pustulate, the area will heat up and the body will ususally absorb the mess.

For infections Learn how to use MMS (miracle mineral suppliment) (chlorine dioxide). In a grid down shtf world it might save your life. It kills bacteria, viruses, molds, yeasts, gangreen, cancer, communicable diseases, tooth aches, parasites.

MMS is cheap on line, The authorities don't want you to have it so that should tell you it works.
 
#21 ·
I stepped on a sewing needle as a kid and about a 5mm piece broke off and stayed in. didnt know it was there for about 2 day, went to school ect, kept getting more painful.
Went to the doc- x-ray- he cut it out, He thought it traveled about 2" in the 2 days I had it in me.
He said wood will work out or desolve but metal wont, He said glass was the worse kind of splinter to get.

But I had a bullet in my upper leg and most of it came out the same day but 20 years later the site got hard and more debris came out and they were really small but felt huge under the skin. They were mostly copper fragments of the jacket. 1-3mm long.
 
#22 ·
I know I always have stories about other people, but here is one more.

I was a kid and I remember my mom got a real big splinter in her hand, on the palm side. It got really icky and infected but else than that she was OK. Then the splinter traveled through the thumb muscle to the top of her hand and then she could finally get it out. After that, the hand healed up fine. Don't think any doctor was ever involved, my mom is like a lot of health care staff, she doesn't like going to doctors.
 
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