[LMB] OT: Question for the list mind

[H R Stockert]

At 02:54 PM 9/1/2006, you wrote:
>I was rereading the fourth _Harry Potter_ book, and it occurred to 
>me to wonder:
>
>How long would it take for a person to bleed to death or 
>unconsciousness from a severed hand, anyway?
>
>I'd think, myself, that with a hand severed, a normal person would 
>be out like a light in short order, and dead shortly after 
>that---after all, the traditional way of committing suicide by knife 
>_does_ involve just _slitting_ the wrists...and this would be a lot worse.
>
>But then again, I am greatly ignorant about some things.
>--


Not necessarily.  I have seen instances where a hand, or an entire 
foot or leg, was severed and the arteries sort of shrank up inside 
the remaining tissue and slowed blood loss quite considerably.  Of 
course, with a LARGE artery, like the femoral, severing that almost 
always drops your blood pressure to zero immediately, or almost 
immediately.  But the Brachial artery, for example, is much less 
demanding on the hydrostatic system.  You see things like that in 
combat very often.  Surprisingly so, in fact.    I have my suspicions 
that the presence of a high amount of adrenaline assists the system 
in doing just that, sealing off the flow from the smaller arteries and veins...




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