Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: marie on 06/09/2008 15:34:58
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marie asked the Naked Scientists:
Just a quick question.
If you have your jugular vein, brachial artery or femoral artery cut, how long will it take someone to bleed out? Having a heated discussion with someone about it. he says 36 hours, and i say he's nuts, would be just a matter of minutes. Who's right?
What do you think?
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An adult heart pumps blood at several litres per minute.
An adult has about 4 or 5 litres of blood.
So could bleed to death in a few minutes.
(Don't try this at home)
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Of course, if it's just a small cut...
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depends on the artery, with some arteries like the Dorsalis Pedis Artery you'll have a few minutes, but with the Aorta, Femoral or Carotid Artery, your dead, you'll drop out-cool immediately from the blood pressure drop, and bleed out in less than a minute
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Just to clarify there's no such thing as jugular artery. The jugulars are veins
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I was stabbed thrice in my arm and chest by a home invader. He severed my brachial artery and axillary nerve clean in half.He fled and I immediately felt drowsy. Every time my heart beat blood gushed from my arm pit with great force as if a thumb over a garden hose. I made made it out my front door and about twenty step before I collapsed and went unconcious. Paramedics said I basically died and lost 75 percent of my blood. It all only took about a minute. A severed artery equals death extremely fast unless quick action is taken like in my case.