/me was suprised to find this un-noded . . ."
Direct blood loss from an artery characterized by spurting blood. Of all the different kinds of bodily hemorrhage, this is he worst kind to have in terms of initial trauma and survivability.
Cuts, scrapes and even gashes will only sever capillaries near the skin surface or small veins in the case of particularly deep gashes. Even though wounds like these might appear to bleed a great deal (especially superficial scalp wounds), the blood loss is usually easily controlled by elevating the wound and applying direct pressure; they are usually not life threatening.
Since the body wisely keeps its major arteries near the interior of its limbs and torso, only deep, penetrating wounds will endanger them.
But when they do, the result is unmistakable. Arterial wounds are charactarized by plentiful, sometimes fountainous spurts of blood as it is driven from the body by the heartbeat. Considering that the average body contains 5,600ml of blood, and that the average cardiac stroke volume is 70ml, an untended arterial wound could cause a person to exsanguinate in less than five minutes.
First Aid for arterial bleeding requires elevation and direct pressure, as well as use of arterial pressure points and, as a last resort, the application of a tourniquet. Typically the first three measures are employed in anticipation of emergency assistance of some kind (i.e. rapid transport to a hospital followed immediately by vascular surgery), and the tourniquet only used when the injured's life must be saved at the cost of the injured limb.