Video

How Wounds Bleed

A very gross, very cool simulation that could be used in real time to treat patients.

If the sight of blood makes you squeamish, you might want to click away.

Researchers hoping to help train combat medics more effectively have created a realistic, detailed virtual simulation of a leg injured by flying shrapnel. Modeling bone, muscle, skin, and yes, a vascular system with lots and lots of blood, the simulation accurately portrays the hemorrhaging a medic can expect when faced with a projectile-based leg injury.The team presented their simulation at the fluid-dynamics meeting of the American Physical Society and hope to one day be able to run it in real time, so medics and trainees can apply treatment and see the results of their administrations immediately.