Search terms tried: hemoptysis, aspirating blood, exhaling blood, pulmonary aspiration, (different kinds of) haemorrhage, tracheobronchial injury
Databases & sites searched: Google, Wikipedia, ScienceDirect, MedLine; journal databases; uni library holdings.
The scenario: I have a character (A) who is caught in an explosion and found by another character (B), whom I need to have think that Character A is more badly hurt than he really is for a few minutes. Character A needs to be able to push through his injuries for a few hours to get some sleuthing done, even if he does ultimately need to go get medical treatment. Character B, who finds him, served in Vietnam and has seen a lot of injuries in the field, so while his emotional involvement with Character A could lead him to panic a little, he does basically know what serious injuries look like and would be unlikely to freak out without a fairly good reason.
If it could be consistent with the scenario, I'd really like Character A to visibly exhale some amount of blood following this injury, because the image would work well with some other elements in the story. I'm open to alternatives, though. The main thing is that it needs to temporarily fool Character B into thinking that it's more life-threatening than it really is, and be something that wouldn't take too many words to put across in fiction (the scene goes by very quickly).
If exhaling blood would work—i.e., be something that could be really bad but could also be caused by some lesser injury—what would you call that? Aspirating blood?
Any help appreciated.
