I’ve never understood the concept of “instant” death in cases where, say, someone’s heart gives out or aorta gets severed, or something happens to their neck, etc. “So and so died instantly.”
What does instant mean? And how does someone go from alive to brain dead that quickly?
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So being alive tends to revolve around the heartbeat. There are people who are brain-dead, whether through trauma, disease, drugs, etc. that are only considered alive medically.
Once your heart stops, you typically have about… 4 ish minutes before you have brain damage and maybe up to like… 5 before brain death from lack of oxygen. Even with high quality and prompt CPR would you extend that time to about 20 minutes or so. Possibly longer if in hospital setting with high flow O2 pumped into the lungs along with the CPR. However, even with all that, the possibility of damage remains.
If the Aorta tears, you have a severe heart attack, or other injury which causes a lack of blood, you simply can’t supply oxygen or energy to your muscles. You lose consciousness when you lose about 25-40% of your total blood volume. Your brain then starves of oxygen because it is constantly operating. It is VERYA energy intensive to operate. Thus, when you lose blood, it loses energy, shuts off. The shut off causes more body systems to turn off. And you’re dead.
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