In the case of a spinal break that causes someone to become paralyzed, why would organs and other bodily functions un-affected if the cause is a separation of the brain’s ability to communicate with the body? Does the brain not also subconsciously control breathing, heart beat, etc?
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Well, if it does happen, we don’t tend to call them “paralysed”. We tend to say “they died from a broken neck”. People don’t often get effective treatment for that, or at least not fast enough to survive it and be declared as paralysed XD
That said, it can happen. The catch is that the nerves for your organs tend to split off from the spinal chord fairly early in comparison to your arms/legs.
If we brake your spine at the hips, your arms will be fine because the nerves in your arms split off from the spine before that.
If we break your spine by the shoulders, your lungs will probably be fine because the nerve controlling them doesn’t reach that point. (In fact, I’m pretty sure in the lung & heart’s case, they’re connected to the vagus nerve, meaning they avoid the spinal column entirely.)
The other catch is that some of these essential organs can do fine on their own without the brain. They can have small, autonomic nervous systems of their own that can send signals back and forth to themselves. Your heart for example can continue to keep rhythm even if its connection to the brain is severed.
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