I had thought that my husband was shot with a hand gun and the bullet ended up in his aorta. What happened is that he was shot through his mouth and the bullet lodged in a carotid artery - not sure which one. I know it took him over 20 minutes to bleed out because he died on route to the hospital after we waiting between 18 and 19 minutes for the ambulance that was around the corner sitting waiting for the OK to come in. My question is if he had been attended to more quickly - in the 4 minutes that he should have been with the ambulance there rather than around the corner, could he have survived the gun shot wound. No one gave him first aid while we waited for the ambulance. He was alert and lifted himself on the ambulance bed when they finally got there. They were asking him questions and he was communicating with his hands and with his head nodding for yes or shaking for no questions. So he had oxygen going to his brain enough that he was still alert after 20 minutes from the gun shot wound. The bullet didn t go all the way through. It got lodged in the artery. What are the odds that with rapid response to get him to the hospital that he would have survived?