how do people die instantly?

Question

You typically see people deteriorating and stop breathing or fall into a state of unconsciousness – this seems steady. But when you read of freak accidents like being decapitated internally (the spinal cord detaching from the head), how do you just die instantly? If the brain can survive 6 minutes without oxygen until pronounced brain dead…how does someone just die? Even if your heart stops beating there and then, how do you just drop dead?

Edit: thanks!

In: 89

Answer 1

From a science perspective nothing is truly instant. But 1 nanosecond is pretty close for practical purposes. I think we would call a death taking less than 1 second instant. Maybe anything less than 5 seconds.