Some suicide methods have higher rates of lethality than others; e.g. wrist-slashing has a much lower lethality rate than use of firearms, which results in death 90% of the time. 75% of all suicide attempts are by the use of drugs, a method that is often thwarted because the drug is nonlethal or is used at a nonlethal dosage. These people survive 97% of the time.[2] About one-third of people who attempt suicide will repeat the attempt within 1 year, and about 10% of those who threaten or attempt suicide eventually do kill themselves.[3]
Attempted suicide can cause injury. For example, A.J. Reed attempted to kill himself with a shotgun and survived, but the blast destroyed most of his face and completely blinded him.[4][5] 300,000 (or more) Americans a year survive a suicide attempt. A majority have injuries that are treated in the emergency room treatment, and then released. However, about 116,000 are hospitalized, of whom 110,000 are eventually discharged alive. Their average hospital stay is 10 days; the average cost is $15,000. Seventeen percent, some 19,000, of these people are permanently disabled, restricted in their ability to work, each year, at a cost of $127,000 per person.[6]
