Three Areas Of The Body That Will Bleed Heavily And Why You Should Seek Urgent Care

The human body has several areas that are blood-rich and full of blood vessels. When you cut yourself on any of these areas, you bleed quite heavily. You may be able to stop the bleeding on your own, but if you cannot, you should seek out emergency medical or urgent care. Here are the three biggest (and bloodiest) areas of the human body and why you should seek urgent care when you get a cut on these areas.

The Human Head

Because of the way the skin wraps around the human skull, all of the blood vessels in your face and under your hair are very close to the surface of the skin. When you get even the smallest cut to your face or scalp, the bleeding takes longer to stop because of the flow of blood to the head and through these surface vessels. A severe enough blood loss to your head can cause your body's temperature to drop because it thinks your brain is not getting enough blood to keep it warm, alive and functioning. If you cannot apply enough pressure to the open wound to get it to stop, a doctor will need to put stitches in the wound to stop the bleeding. 

Fingertips

Why do you think that people with diabetes test their blood by pricking their fingertips? It is because there are so many little blood vessels compacted into the small spaces in your fingers that it makes them an excellent choice for extracting a blood sample for the glucometer. If you slice a finger or accidentally shave a bit of flesh off with your morning razor, your finger will bleed for some time. Loss of blood to your fingers could result in the loss of their use, so you want to be sure that you stop the bleeding through pressure, stitches or cauterization. (Cauterization is not recommended unless you are stranded somewhere without help and cannot stop the flow of blood from the wounds on your fingers.)

Groin and the Insides of Your Thighs

During sexual arousal, a lot of blood flows to the groin, the insides of your thighs and genitals. Your body was designed to move a lot of blood into this region for both sexual purposes and flight responses. When you have a cut in this region and are terrified or your adrenaline kicks in, the flow of blood increases because your body is trying to pump oxygen to the big muscle groups to help you run from the danger. If the cut is anywhere near the femoral arteries, which travel along the insides of your thights through your groin and connect with a major artery in the body, you will bleed out quickly and possibly die. Urgent care is needed, but more importantly, you will need the urgent care to keep you alive until you can reach the nearest emergency room.