Orion writes:
Statscan tells us that of all violent assaults that are not
immediately fatal your odds of survival are better if you are shot rather
than stabbed (some people aren't even immediately aware that they have
been shot!). Knife wounds tend to be large, ugly and tough to repair ass
opposed to neat little bullet entry wounds, depending on location,
calibre and other factors..
Perhaps you could tell us more about what your source says and how it
came to that conclusion.
I looked in Medline for studies on gun shot and stab wound mortality
and it turned up dozens. There was a consistent pattern across
different countries and wound locations --- gunshot wounds were far
more lethal. For example a study in The Journal of Trauma (36:4
pp516-524) looked at all injury admissions to a Seattle hospital over
a six year period. The mortality rate for gunshot wounds was 22%
while that for stab wounds was 4%. Even among patients that survived,
gunshot wounds were more serious --- the mean cost of treatment for
these patients was more than twice that for stab wounds.
Repairing a large entry wound (like from a knife) or a small entry
wound (like from a bullet) is not very difficult in either case. What
is difficult is repairing vital organs. Large low-velocity things
like knives tend to push them out the way, while small high-velocity
things like bullets plow right into them.