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[someone12345]

One of my military dwarves was stabbed in the upper body by a snatcher. While his breastplate blunted the attack, his lung still got bruised and he started to "have trouble breathing". Is he going to die?

[GiglameshDespair]

Probably not.

[smjjames]

That message can show up when they get the wind knocked out of them. He should be fine.

[someone12345]

When people start to have difficulty breathing, they tend to suffocate.

[PDF urist master]

he's still got another lung.

[someone12345]

So the bruised lung is gone forever?

[GiglameshDespair]

No, then it'd be missing, rather than bruised. Bruises heal. He was referring to the fact he still can breathe through one lung fine, even if the other is damaged.

[someone12345]

Will the dwarf recover?

[GiglameshDespair]

Probably. Bruises heal.

[oldark]

Will the dwarf recover?

No.  For some reason your CMD will decide to perform surgery just to inspect the lung.  Blood will fly and he will be sutured. He will then become infected and die months later. Science will forget his contribution.

[ORCACommander]

Dwemer Morghulis

[Telgin]

The serious answer is that yes, he'll be fine.  What happened is his lung was bruised, which so far as I've seen always means functional loss in DF.  Bruised lungs mean trouble breathing, and a bruised brain means it stops working and the dwarf dies.  Other organs, such as the heart and digestive organs, are optional and even if they stop working it won't matter.

Anyway, as mentioned, dwarves have two lungs.  The second lung will keep him going while the bruise on the first heals, which it will do just fine in short order without needing a doctor.  If the lung is actually damaged things are different.  I believe but cannot 100% confirm that the lung can scar and lose function permanently if it's torn apart by an attack.

The other thing to be careful about is a dwarf having both lungs bruised.  If this happens both stop working and he or she can suffocate.  If a dwarf has very fast recovery I think there's a chance they'll recover before suffocating, but some can die if that happens.

[Maw]

In Dwarf Fortress, the answer to your question of "Is a dwarf going to die?" is a YES.

The point of Dwarf Fortress is to determine the where, when and how of said dwarf dying.

[Garath]

that was my exact reaction to the question in the title. As told by others though, the specific dwarf will be fine. For now, who knows what the future may bring.

sidenote:
Does bruising mean complete loss of use of whatever it is? Bruised leg muscles don't seem to have much effect.

[weenog]

When people start to have difficulty breathing, they tend to suffocate.

Depends on why they're having trouble breathing, too.  A hit that severely damages or outright severs the spine paralyzes the body below the point on the spine that was wrecked.  A dwarf that takes a bad shot in the upper body may have trouble breathing because his lungs have been permanently stopped due to disconnection from the rest of the nervous system.  That does tend to result in death.