#liliwilkinson

Oh I love this question dearly. Thank you for this.

First, he wouldn’t be dehydrated enough, although air is actually the bigger concern if he was actually trapped (minutes vs days, as you'll see). The size of the area he’s supposedly been trapped in will determine how long he should have been able to be alive in that pocket.

But the simplest way to tell that he’s full of shit is this: if he was buried under rubble for 5 days without access to water, he would be dead. Humans can sustain about 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food. Five days with no water and he would be dead.

If that wasn’t an amazing tip-off, he wouldn’t have the right injuries. If he was knocked unconscious, where’s his head injury? Bruise, goose egg, scalp cut, anything? Is there coal dust in his lungs? In his nasal passages? Is he absolutely freaking filthy? Does he smell like he’s been down a mine for 5 days trapped with his own sweat/pee/poop? Does he have a nasty cough from inhaling coal dust (which is an irritant)?

Is he built like a miner? Does he have rough hands? Are those hands scarred from having tried to dig his way out? Does he still have fingernails? (Are they clean?) Is he wearing an absolutely filthy, poop-stained mining outfit?

Other, more general questions: Were there other survivors? Do they recognize him? How did he supposedly escape? Was his “rescuer” there when 911 got there -- because surely he didn’t go into the hospital on his own (if he was actually down a mine for that long). Hell, without food or water, he wouldn’t be able to walk at that point.

None of these would immediately come to mind except probably the dehydration one, but something would feel “off” about this patient during examination. The signs won’t match the story, which is always something we’re wary of in medicine and especially in emergency medicine. Particularly if there are actual survivors to compare him to that were brought to the same facility, people will look at him and go “he doesn’t look like {these other 3 patients from the same collapse}”.

Thanks so much for sending this m y way!!

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

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