It’s often seen in film/books/etc. that when someone receives a chest injury, is smashed against a wall or similar, he coughs up blood or has blood coming out from his mouth. Does this actually happen? Why?
If the lungs get damaged it makes sense that blood gets coughed up, but what about injuries that affect other organs?
In: Biology
They don’t. It’s just a good visual representation for the movies that clearly, easily, and quickly depicts “he’s really hurt”
They don’t unless there’s some lung damage.
But if you show how real injuries look, viewers whose minds haven’t been warped by the far edges of the internet get grossed out.
Even then, making practical, believable injuries for the camera is expensive and takes a ton of time to set and reset. Plus, if you don’t get it all done in one day, then the makeup folks have to make sure tomorrow’s injury looks JUST like yesterday’s.
Coughing blood just requires the actor to crunch a blood capsule in their mouth, and cleans up with paper towels. Plus, movie culture has already accepted that as a shorthand for “Internal/Critical Injuries”.
If there is an injury anywhere from the mouth to the lungs, sure, you could cough up blood. For the most part, it is just a visual they are trying to make to show that the person in question is seriously injured.
It’s probably supposed to represent internal bleeding. I cough up blood pretty often but I think that’s more because I cough a lot and have scars in my throat or something from coughing too much.
If they’re coughing up blood then it’s in their lungs. Lungs don’t work when they have fluid in them (like blood) so they have to clear themselves out (by coughing) so they can continue pumping oxygen into the bloodstream.
Edit: Regarding other organ injuries, mouth trauma is going to make you spit up blood, stomach trauma will make you vomit blood (could be mistaken for coughing it up, and other organs (ie; kidneys and liver) will make blood come out the other end. Most of the other ones cause internal bleeding which you don’t usually actually see because it’s underneath the skin.
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