when you die from blood loss, do you feel like you are dying from not being able to breathe? Because your lungs are breathing but you’re not getting oxygen where it needs to go, would it feel something like suffocating?

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when you die from blood loss, do you feel like you are dying from not being able to breathe? Because your lungs are breathing but you’re not getting oxygen where it needs to go, would it feel something like suffocating?

In: Biology

26 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I presume that the sensation of breathing just arises from lungs inhaling *something*, not necessarily air. Think about it – you could breathe an odorless, toxic fume like carbon monoxide, and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Until you fall unconscious and die, that is.

Anonymous 0 Comments

When you die from blood loss, you’d lose consciousness long before.

The feeling that makes you gasp for air is *not* due to lack of oxygen: it is due to excess CO2. So even though you’d be lacking oxygen on a whole-body scale, your CO2 levels would theoretically be normal so you wouldn’t feel like you were suffocating.

Most likely, you’d gradually drift into unconsciousness and black out as the brain gets less and less oxygen

Anonymous 0 Comments

The body feels suffocation from CO2 buildup rather than a lack of oxygen, so dying from blood loss wouldn’t cause that feeling because it’s not reacting to a lack of oxygen.

My understanding (as not a medical professional) is blood loss is relatively painless on its own, it makes you sleepy until you just fall asleep and die (if not saved).

Anonymous 0 Comments

800-273-8255
Just going to put this suicide prevention hotline number here juuuuuuusssstttt in case 🙂
Probably just a curious mind wondering, but my mom brain can’t help itself.

Anonymous 0 Comments

800-273-8255 can answer more definitively than most as a previous comment mentioned.

However blood loss leads to cold feelings then passing out and ultimately the long sleep.

However we cannot know for sure as those who have died from blood loss cannot share their information with us anymore.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I’ve actually been through this, and you would be unconscious before you died. However, the period up until you pass out – though short – is utterly terrifying.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I nearly passed out after donating blood because I was dehydrated. My ears started to ring, my vision got blurry/delayed/streaky like I was drunk, my muscles got delayed and less coordinated, and my face felt hot. Sorta felt nauseous. Leaning back with a cold towel on my forehead and a big drink of water and sugar/salt helped. It was definitely disturbing and I was glad to have nurses handy to help me get comfortable and get my blood pressure up again.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Two possibilities, inability to maintain blood pressure or hypovolemic shock. It would depend on the rate of blood loss. High rate would likely lower blood pressure (think not enough water in the hose) to the point you could have an arrhythmia (heart malfunction) and brain death in 6 minutes due to no oxygen being pumped to the brain. Lower rate loss leads to Hypovolemic shock Hypo=low, volemic=volume, shock=the inability of blood to perfuse muscle. This means all those important organs (heart, liver) can’t get blood which in turn can’t get oxygen or expel CO2.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The process of exsanguination (death from loss of blood) causes the heart rate to drastically increase in order to effectively pump what blood you have all over the body and most importantly to the brain. At some point, the amount of blood making it to the brain is not enough and you pass out. During this whole process, you become cold and dizzy because not enough blood is circulating around the body. You can feel extremely heavy/weak and, indeed, get short of breath with little feats of exertion.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It depends how quickly you lose consciousness. Many people lose consciousness due to lack of oxygen to their brain fairly quickly following extensive blood loss. There can be a feeling of shortness of breath absolutely. It’s common to see someone dying of blood loss breathing quickly and shallowly or taking guppy breaths.

Source: EMT