Originally posted by budichai:
You didn't look at the links? Pulled out was the method of choice.
An instrument called beluleum was invented during the long Peloponnesian War, over four hundred years before the Christian era. It was a rude extracting-forceps, and was used by Hippocrates in the many campaigns in which he served.
Greek medical instruments Iapyx the mythological son of Daedalus or Lycaon Aeneas' healer during the Trojan war (who escaped to Italy after the war and founded Apulia) removing an arrowhead from Aeneas thigh using a forceps.
He used a specialized surgical instrument for removal of arrows, known as “the spoon of Diokles” after its inventor Diocles of Carystus, a student of Aristotle.
Pushing it through and you run the risk of hitting other, undamaged blood vessels. You are making a bigger wound open to infections, on two sides.
No surgical options? Cut the shaft and leave it in place until you do have a surgical option. The Wild West article said 6 out of 7 people died from their arrow wounds, so your odds are not that great anyway with multiple arrow shots.
