Jessica asks:
In my story idea one of the things my serial killer does is remove her victim's adrenal glands(she has illegal organ harvesters do this), then put him in an underground maze and see how far he manages to make it out of the maze before he collapses and dies. This character dies.
In my story idea one of the things my serial killer does is remove her victim's adrenal glands(she has illegal organ harvesters do this), then put him in an underground maze and see how far he manages to make it out of the maze before he collapses and dies. This character dies.
What I wanted to know was:
1. Is this idea realistic? Would he actually survive
long enough to try and find his way out of a maze, or would he just collapse
there and then?
2. If not, could I make it realistic somehow, for
example, by having the killer give him some steroid hormones before dropping
him in the maze, but then no more?
3. What would actual removal, as opposed to, say,
Addison's disease, do to him? Like how severe would the effects be - would be
just be a little bit weak and then deteriorate, or would he be really sick
right away?
4. Something she does to another victim is render
them completely deaf. How easily could she do this?
Jordyn Says:
The adrenal glands sit on top of your kidneys and release cortisol and epinephrine.
You do have some of these hormones circulating at all times that will probably
last somewhere between 2-4 hours. As to how long your character could last
probably depends on how long and how much energy they would have to expend in
the maze.
For instance, a five minutes stroll and he's out then he's probably alive at the end. However, if it's a long arduous maze and he's being chased by a serial killer, the victim will burn through their hormone reserves much faster and would be more likely to succumb to death more quickly.
For instance, a five minutes stroll and he's out then he's probably alive at the end. However, if it's a long arduous maze and he's being chased by a serial killer, the victim will burn through their hormone reserves much faster and would be more likely to succumb to death more quickly.
Giving steroids could lengthen the amount of time
they could live for. Patients with Addison's disease, where the adrenal glands
aren't working properly, generally take supplemental steroids twice a
day.
I would imagine the effects of immediate removal of
the adrenal glands would cause the patient to be sick right away. In Addison's
disease, the symptoms develop slowly over time because there is still some
amount of these hormones being released. In surgical removal, there's no
further release from the glands, just what the patient has remaining in their
blood stream. And remember, surgery in and of itself, is a stressor to the body
which would likely use up some of these hormones as well. I would do some
reading on Addisonian crisis to get a clear picture of how soon
and how sick the patient/victim would be.
It is easy to render someone deaf by puncturing the
tympanic membrane and removing one of the ossicles (or one of three bones in
your middle ear.)
Hope this help. Your book idea sounds very intriguing!
Hope this help. Your book idea sounds very intriguing!
And shout out to Liz for helping me with this question.
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