Painful or numb?!

[missjef]

(just to settle an argument) If you had a limb bitten off by a shark would it go numb? because if it got so painful would it actually go numb? Also would this also happen if say you lost a limb in a crash or similar.

[missjef]

oops didnt mean to put would it go numb twice!

[sair5412]

I'd go for the "so painful it would actually go numb". My uncle fly-mowed over his own foot and didn't feel a thing. My mum found his toe and put it in a bag of frozen peas and he was completely oblivious. He said he felt really calm and just pressed on his main vain (not that one!) to stop the bleeding, although he didn't think he had done much damage due to lack of pain. Only at the hospital did they tell him the extent of his injury.

[joko]

many people say this is the case - i think its a mix of adrenalin, endorphins and shock.

[andy-hughes]

As joko says, our bodies are programmed to shut down pain sensors in the event of a major trauma, part of the 'fight / flight' programming that has allowed our species to survive. I think after a short period of time, the body would go into shock, and unconciounsess would set in.

[johnizere]

I once put a drill bit right through the arch of my foot..(don't ask...) and there was no pain at all!
the doc at the hospital hurt me as he put a dressing right through the wound, even though I asked for a jab and he refused. the pain didn't really set in until I got home, and then it felt like my foot was going to explode!
Ok, not in major league injuries, but I often wonder like you, missjef, what a loss of limb would feel like. I once knew a man who had lost several fingers using a jigsaw, one of the industrial types. He said he felt nothing at the time!

[Eve]

My dad managed to slice his finger off with a hedge strimmer and think he was the same.

I remember screaming when i lost the end of my finger in a door hinge but I guess that wasn't quite so "instant".

[liquidspace]

When I was about 12 I got hit by a car and had to go to hospital. I can remember seeing the car so close to me and then I remember coming to on the grass verge. Clearly I blacked out. I think when the body knows it is about to go through major trauma something takes over so that you feel nothing.

I have wondered about this in the context of falling off a building or a parachute not opening - I would imagine you would feel nothing. So I guess some deaths are painless which is a comfort.

[Catso]

Many shark victims report that losing a limb didn't hurt at the time. Just like the people above, they are often surprised when they see/find out the extent of their injury.

Most of your pain sensitivity is in your skin, not in the depths of a limb. Same reason why brain operations can be done without an anaesthetic.

[missjef]

thanks for your answers!!
I sometimes wonder whether if you fall from a high building or similar you would black our before you hit the ground? If it would be the same as some of the accidents described above, if you body would know what was going to happen casuing you to black out?
But then again, people jumping from planes and bungee jumping dont tend to black out i dont think!

[chicklin]

I suppose the people jumping out of planes and bungee jumping don't have the certain knowledge that their reconnection with the earth is going to be extremely painful and final do they? So maybe the black-out mechanism isn't triggered? How would I know - I get dizzy on high heels! : o [