Like if you get shot in the head, your death is obviously instantaneous (in most cases) because your brain is literally gone. Does that mean that after getting shot directly in your heart, you would still be conscious for a little while until your brain stops due to the inability to get fresh blood/oxygen to it?
In: Biology
I experienced this… you def. are conscious. When I was pregnant I had undiagnosed gestational diabetes. It messed with me in many ways, one of them being heart arrhythmias. One day I was at a park with my mom and my first kid and i felt really “off”… so I returned home with them… once there I went into a bedroom and laid down. My heart started racing, then it did a loud THUMP and dead stopped….. I was like what the fuck… I was all alone in the room and knew my heart wasn’t beating and oh my god I’m going to die and I can’t even get up to tell anyone, they will just find me dead….
I started to count, knowing things would go black soon… I got to about 10 seconds and started to feel tingly like I was passing out, and I’m thinking fuck so this is how It ends….then two huge THUMP! THUMP! And then it just started beating regularly, the tingling went away and I’m left thinking
HOLY. SHIT.
My heart has stopped a few times but came back on its own. The experience is one of mild panic while fading to black over some seconds. Then my heart picks back up again beating very fast and I’m full of adrenaline and then actually feeling panic.
Also had my heart go to over 300 bpm and needed to be shocked back into rhythm.
Im not a drug abuser or anything, I just have a sinoatrial node that likes to do its own thing.
The brain *very quickly* notices that the oxygen level sinks, and breathing goes through the ceiling. Without much success, though. You’ll get an adrenaline boost. But you stay conscious for a short while. But that’s not fun, as there is only one thing on your mind: *PANIC*. I can tell you, it’s not funny. 0/10, can’t recommend.
I was lucky, my heart restarted from one of the fail-safe circuits the body has, or else I would not type this.
I can actually chime in on this. I had a cardiac arrest in 2018 and was rescued by a passer by. I dropped because my heart stop, but I started Agonal breathing. Your brain stem senses the lack of blood and sends out pulses I believe. My savior did CPR for 18 minutes and then I was shocked in the ambulance.
You’re aware for at least a few seconds afterwards. When I was 6 years old, chasing some kids on the playground, my heart suddenly stopped beating. It was pounding hard as I ran, and then the sudden lack of pounding made me stop cold. I put my hand on my chest, and everything started to look splotchy. I remember a ring of blackness in my vision took over, and grew from the peripheral inward, until all I saw was a pinpoint in the center of my vision. My knees must have buckled at that moment, because the last thing I saw was myself falling involuntarily. I hit the ground, and felt this extremely hard, painful BANG in my chest. I don’t know if it was from the shock of hitting the ground or my heart just turning itself back on, but the beat was back, and my vision returned immediately. I was totally freaked out. Everyone was staring at me wondering why I just stopped running and fell. Yard duty teachers were walking up to me, but I was too embarrassed to tell anyone what had just happened. I remember my chest seriously hurt the rest of the day, but it was years before I told anyone. Also, unrelated, I had a dream in my mid 20’s where I was in France, dressed in rags, different body than mine. I was on a platform in front of tons of cheering people, full on about to be executed via guillotine. I remember the sound and rumble of the blade as it was released and falling. The strike. And I vividly remember seeing everything and everyone’s faces tumble as my head rolled off the short platform. I knew I was dead. My sight faded as my head was in mid-air, and was gone before it hit the ground (or basket-I don’t know). I know it was just a dream, but I have really searched for all these years for confirmation that that would be an accurate experience for someone going through that. It seems to add up. It was a terrifying thing to wake from. I don’t recommend it.
Things that stop your heart are often doing other bad shit too. Sometimes your brain intentionally shuts down to preserve itself if there’s, eg, a sudden drop in blood pressure.
It takes around 6-12 second of no heart beat before you black out (depends a bit on how good your body can handle changes in blood pressure). Your brain needs a certain blood pressure to be conscious and your heart beating Is what makes that blood pressure.
So yeah, you may be conscious for a few seconds while your heart is stopped before you blackout and then die if it doesn’t restart (or get cpr) within a few minutes.
It’s pretty haunting to watch.
Here’s to dying in your sleep.
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Slightly off topic but anyone who really wants to scare themselves should go read about CPR induced consciousness. I personally have been unlucky enough to see a man open his eyes while we were doing cpr on him. He also bit the lyrangoscope when the doctor tried to intubate him. And yes we were absolutely sure he was dead and in need of cpr. This is the same man that confidently walked into our cardiac room and said “I am having a heart attack, this is my fourth one and I am going to die this time”. He was right.
Some areas are actually looking into sedation protocols for cardiac arrest, though I’m unsure if any have been implemented.
No, you don’t. You stay conscious for a few tens of seconds.
Apparently, back when smoking was common and good safety procedures were not yet universal, you’d occasionally find an electrical maintenance person dead next to a fuse box, holding a cigarette. The maintenance person had touched a live wire inside the box with their right hand while holding the grounded metal of the box open with their left hand and thought they’d received a non-fatal shock, when the shock had in fact silently stopped their heart. Then they’d start feeling tired from insufficient blood flow, and get out a cigarette because nicotine is a stimulant. Then they’d fall unconscious and eventually die.
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