Our neighbor shot a whitetail with a bow several years and the arrow went through both shoulder blades. You could see the hole in both shoulder blades. Somehow he survived the infection he had (it was bad, I almost shot him to put him out of his misery). Anyways, that buck lived 7 years after that incident. He might have died of old age last year because he never showed up last year.
This buck was shot by the same hunter and when I skinned it I found the broken arrow. After looking back through the game can pics I found that he had been shot on opening day of bow season. He had a lump on his shoulder that I thought was a broken bone, turned out to be the broadhead & arrow broke off inside of him. I killed this buck the last day of rifle season so he lived 3 months with this arrow in him and showed zero signs of being injured. Deer are amazingly tough animals, I have no clue how they can live; but they do. Axis are bigger boned so I reckon they might be even tougher.
Pics of the buck.
The lump above his right ear is what I later realized to be the broken off arrow shaft.
This was the shaft & broadhead that was stuck into his shoulder.