[marie]

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?

[RD]

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)

[Bored chemist]

Of course, if it's just a small cut...

[Steve]

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

[ok]

Just to clarify there's no such thing as jugular artery. The jugulars are veins

[wych]

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.