Often in movies and such when a person is struck in the heart they drop like a sack of potatoes. In real life if someone were to shoot you in the heart how long would you be able to function normally?
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Normally, you drop like a sack of potatoes, like in the movies. Due to shock.
You could potentially continue operating on the stored oxygen in your organs for a minute or so depending on your individual condition. But you will black out fairly quickly and die not long after since you aren’t moving any fresh blood into your brain.
You stay conscious longer when holding your breathe because you still have oxygen in your lungs and oxygenated blood in your body that is circulating.
This is all assuming that the shot completely destroys the heart and its functioning, not just putting a small hole in it that allows it to continue beating with some level of effectiveness.
Almost not at all.
Your brain needs a constant supply of oxygen. Even when you’re, say, holding your breath, your heart is still circulating your blood (so it’s still pulling oxygen from the air left in your lungs), so you can hold out for a little while. But if your heart stops, your brain consumes the available oxygen in a matter of seconds, and you almost immediately pass out (in a matter of a couple seconds at most). Your brain cells can survive for around a minute or two in this state before they start taking irreversible damage (the exact time depends on things like the temperature), and you’re dead a few minutes after that.
An example of this in a case where the heart *doesn’t* stop is fainting. If you have low blood pressure or certain disorders, standing up quickly causes your heart to briefly not be able to lift blood to your brain, and you faint on standing up. In this case, the brain doesn’t stay without oxygen for long enough to do any damage, but you lose consciousness almost instantly.
If you stop the blood flow to the brain you will loose consciousness in less than 10 seconds, and that’s probably being generous
The issue would be if the shot or stab to the chest doesn’t stop the heart beating immediately but causes bleeding. If it’s in the chest you’ll probably bleed out quickly, but maybe be able to function to some extent for a few minutes
It really depends on the damage done. Assuming the heart or arteries are materially destroyed a person’s blood pressure would drop and they would lose consciousness. This isn’t instantaneous… depending on the person, they could remain conscious for as much as 5 seconds (roughly) before passing out.
If less damage is done, and the heart is only functioning marginally (ie fibrillation) they could remain conscious considerably longer.
Ever seen people getting chocked out? You lose consciousness in seconds.
Tho I don’t recommend it, you can try it yourself if you’re a fairly skinny person. Feel out the 2 carotid arteries running up on either side of your neck with your thumb and index finger. Then let our your breath and press down. You’ll feel like you’re about to pass out within a few seconds.
I’ve seen plenty of footage of firing squads, especially after the Cuban revolution. The victim collapses at the instant the rifles fire into him chest.
To add to what others here have said, your brain operates the same way as our supply chains: Just -In-Time.
There are no fat stores, oxygen stores, etc. in the brain. There is no emergency backup or reserve. It is wholly reliant on the constant flow of blood to bring nutrients and oxygen, as well as carry away wastes. If that flow is disrupted for any reason, the brain very quickly shuts down. A sudden heart stoppage can render someone unconscious in seconds, and brain death within minutes.
In his book “On Killing,” LtCol Dave Grossman relates several anecdotes of police officers who have been shot fatally, including at least one who was shot in the heart, and managed to live long enough to kill their attacker.
When people faint due to high heat or stress, that’s from a sudden drop in blood pressure, resulting in a mild inability to stand up. This is called a vasovagal syncope in medical terminology, and it’s happens very quickly to people in perfectly good health, whose hearts are merely pumping *less* than they were a few seconds ago.
What’s really going to make the difference in terms of time is the amount of tissue damage to the heart muscle and connected arteries and veins, but even a small rupture of the arteries around the heart can result in hypovolemic shock within seconds. If the victim is shot with a rifle, however, the resulting tissue damage can be **massive**, because the speed of the projectile exceeds the limits of human tissue’s elasticity, and it creates a wound cavity of huge size. In that circumstances, they would likely lose consciousness in a fraction of a second.
If I remember correctly you have anywhere between 5-30 seconds depending on how badly your heart has been destroyed. Sometimes you drop instantly. I was in law enforcement for a while and saw plenty of training videos where a suspect took a heart shot and kept functioning for long enough to injure/kill the shooting officer
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