Instant death....

[nuova1]

Is there such a thing as instantaneous death. You hear news bulletins, programmes etc saying....oh he died instantly so what is this 'instant' we hear about. Just imaging being beheaded by a Guillotine, wouldn't one still be alive for a few moments and if so then its surely not instant.

[sft42]

Yes...a massive crushing impact like a bad car crash can cause instant death esp. if the head is involved.....most deaths however violent will as you have noticed take a second or two before the body stops being stupid and realises it's dead and gives up.

[omblod]

Steve Wright, the American comedian, famously pointed out that everyone dies instantly, "You're alive, you're alive, you're alive, you're dead." Think he's got a point there.

[molly]

My interpretation of instant death is represented by the phrase "he didn't know what hit him". In other words, he's busy going about his normal life, without knowing he was in danger, and suddenly he's dead. No time, even for a split second, to anticipate his death, and consequently, painless. The best way to go.

[incitatus]

probably no form of death instantly suspends brain activity, so you would be likely to have some consciousness of what happened. Some toxins, such as brevetoxin, work astonishingly quickly.

[bernardo]

I think that being guillotined would result in lots of blood rushing out of the head, and the loss of blood pressure would result in lack of consciousness within a fraction of a second, even if it actually takes a few seconds for the head to "die". Some deaths would be so quick that the person doesn't have a chance to notice what is happening at all - e.g. a very close bomb blast which literally blows the person to bits, or a nuclear bomb which evaporates the whole body in a fraction of a second. In such cases, the speed of the explosion (or destructive force) would travel faster than the nerve impulses going through the body - so the brain would be killed before it gets any of the messages telling it that it is being killed.

[Hamish]

As you are either alive or dead, any death is instantanious. Perhpas you mean from recieving an injury whats the minimum time to death?

[KEJ2000]

A shotgun blast to the lower part of the brain (brainstem) would certainly cause instant death... Anything that affects your whole brain all at once, would also be. Geez, what a morbid question!!

[KEJ2000]

Oh, and I forgot about bombs and explosions. That would do it too.

[incitatus]

in the days when we did chop off heads, it was often reported that the eyes and lips of severed heads moved for a minute or two after death....