I am currently writing a screenplay where the main character is shot in the abdomen twice from across the street. The bullets would penetrate her small intestine and she suffers from life threatening complications early on (the details of which I am still working out). My question is what would the recovery time for such an injury be and what would it entail (estimated since I'm still researching the exact details of her injuries)? More specifically, how long would she be in the ICU and in the hospital and how long before she could return to work (she works as a homicide detective in a big city)?

If we can't answer this, then your research should be interesting enough to let us know what it was. Forensics is an interesting application and many universities have websites pertaining to just what you want to know.

Writing can be thrilling when you do your own research, SeaAngel, otherwise it doesn't mean a lot to the final product; researching just this one aspect will give you insight into your whole story line.

Tick

Read through this, but it's kind of thick.

Abdominal gunshot wounds. An urban trauma center's experience with 300 consecutive patients. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1493651/)