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Heal It with Fire: Difference between revisions
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''A fire that can heal?''|''The Arbolit'', verse 3, from ''[[Magi Nation]]''}}
Cauterizing a wound is the process of literally burning the flesh in order to seal it off and stop the bleeding. It has been around for a long while, and is a legitimate medical technique.
Naturally, the fact that you can use fire in order to close a wound is something that allows for various purposes. Some of the important points may be lost, but the fact that someone's withstanding a good deal of pain in order to either survive or recover.
Bonus points if a person performs it on himself.
In a related note, it may be used during the process of an attack in order to effectively seal off any wounds, primarily for visual purposes. One reason it is used (at least in the case of heat weapons like a [[Laser Blade]]) is as an excuse to avoid having to show the streams of blood that would otherwise accompany the removal of a major body part. (See [[Bloodless Carnage]].)
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* ''[[The Boondock Saints]]'' has [[Power Trio]] Conner MacManus, his brother Murphy, and Rocco all take turns under an iron to cauterize wounds they received during a disastrous firefight with The Duke.
* Stephen Baldwin's character in ''John Carpenter's Vampires'' does this pretty much every time he's wounded, once with a lighter, and once by firing his sub-machine gun into the air then holding the hot barrel to the wound.
* The Headless Horseman from ''[[Sleepy Hollow (Film)|Sleepy Hollow]]'' decapitated his victims, and it was noted that the head wounds were cauterized instantly, as though the blade used was red hot. Constable Crane wondered how this could be possible, due to the absence of blistering of the skin or scorch marks on the clothing. The superstitious believed it to have been caused by "[[Hellfire|the Devil's fire]]."
** Constable Crane himself survives and recovers from a stab wound much more quickly than he should have due to this effect.
* The main character of ''[[Ultraviolet (film)|Ultraviolet]]'' cauterizes one of her wounds with the heat generated by firing her gun.
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* The ending of ''[[Discworld|Making Money]]'' had Moist cauterizing the {{spoiler|gangrenous finger of Cosmo by bringing his imitation Vetinari ring under the sun, making its stygium components white-hot}}.
* [[Ciaphas Cain]], '''[[Fake Ultimate Hero|HERO OF THE]] [[All the Tropes Wiki Drinking Game|IMPERIUM]]''', has mentioned several times that since lasgun shots cauterize the wound, it's better to be hit with a lasgun than a solid-slug weapon. Of course, since this is a weapon bearing the [[Fan Nickname]] "Flashlight", there are other reasons for this.
** Only if you're talking in comparison to other [[Warhammer
* Inverted in ''[[Codex Alera]]'': cauterization is stated to make it nigh impossible for a watercrafter to heal the wound.
* In the first book of the ''[[Coldfire Trilogy]]'', the Hunter uses coldfire (fae generated blue flames that are as cold as real fire is hot) to cleanse Senzei's gangrenous wound.
* How Mackenzie Calhoun of the ''[[Star Trek: New Frontier]]'' series by [[Peter David]] got his [[Good Scars, Evil Scars|facial scar]]. Self-cauterization while seriously injured and lying alone in the desert with a [[Badass|laser welder no less]].
* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', Victorion Greyjoy has to have his hand cauterized by a red priest to save him from blood poisoning. However, this priest worships a god of fire and has received a power boost due to [[The Magic Comes Back|dragons reemerging from extinction]], and as a result, Victorion's arm becomes superhumanly strong.
* Happens a few times in [[Barbara Hambly]]'s ''Sun Wolf and Starhawk'' books, usually after [[Our Zombies Are Different|nuuwa]] attacks. {{spoiler|And then, there's Sun Wolf [[Eye Scream|gouging out his own eye]] and [[Badass|cauterizing the socket]].}}
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* ''[[Burn Notice]]'' inverted this by having Michael use a liquid nitrogen gun to both cauterize a wound (which he secretly [[Indy Ploy|had planned]]) and to sabotage the bad guys pistol.
* ''[[Chris Ryan's Strike Back|Chris Ryans Strike Back]]''. The protagonist does this in Zimbabwe, also using the powder from a cartridge.
* ''[[Spartacus: Blood and Sand]]'' shows Crixus' nasty chest wounds being cauterised. It hurts so much he has to be strapped to the table.
** In ''Spartacus Vengeance'', Nassir's wounds are treated this way. There is even a [[Call Back]] to it saving Crixus. In the final episode Spartacus tries to do it for {{spoiler|Mira}}, but it's too late.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* According to [[The Other Wiki]], [[wikipedia:Cauterize|cauterization]] is mentioned in the [[wikipedia:Hippocratic Corpus|Hippocratic Corpus]]. Since Hippocrates was born after 500 B.C., this one is [[Older Than Feudalism]].
* Cauterization exists in real life, of course, but what makes this stand out as a TV / film trope is how it is so overused. Often it is shown in situations where a real attempt to cauterize would do far more harm than good, in terms of destroying healthy tissue and increasing the risk of infection.
** In [[Real Life]] this was the standard practice before suturing the veins was invented. More often than not, it killed the patient even if the wound wouldn't have. Pouring boiling oil into open wounds is counterproductive, most of the time.
** Among the main problems with cauterization is the very real risk of gangrene. The wound isn't merely closed, the veins and arteries in the area are sealed shut. This can cause more tissues to die from lack of blood, which can turn gangrenous and ultimately require amputation. What it does do, however, is buy the wounded individual time to get to a hospital, which they still have to do.
* Quite a few people think that laser weapon might cause this, like lightsabers do. Physicists and laser technicians say that because of the way most lasers work this is extremely unlikely and the damage would be similar to that of a bullet.
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[[Category:This Index Is On Fire]]
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