I'm going to rip your heart out

[HRG.]

Inspired by someone's recent sticky demise, what would happen if your heart was actually ripped out. Obviously at first your brain wouldn't realise there had been a catastrophic systems failure so it'd still be there, sending messages out to the pump to pump faster etc...

But how long would it actually take to die?

Options for the loss of other vital organs such as lungs are also welcome if the discussion gets stale.

[Plotloss]

You'd exist for as long as your brain could survive without oxygen, so not long.

I guess you'd be lucid and able to view the entire thing until the point you died.

[Man-At-Arms]

good bit in the film Layer Cake, where someones heart is 'boiled' with an iron

bet that didn't take long to go !

[EINSIGN]

[Mr Trophy]

Try it and let us know how you get on

[sleep envy]

neighbour blowing smoke over the fence again?

[Dupont666]

some other site said:

There were experiments conducted with those who were beheaded by a guillotine, coming out to something like 30 seconds consciousness post-separation to the extent that the disembodied head would react to stimuli.

This situation doesn't really apply to heart removal. Keep in mind, there are people who have lived with a still heart, surviving solely on the muscle contractions of arteries to circulate blood. Since the great vessels at the heart would be open in the case of a removal, the victim would bleed out very quickly, but the muscle contractions of the Carotid artery feeding the brain would keep the brain supplied with blood for a little while until blood pressure was no longer sufficient for blood flow to take place.

So, probably about a minute until the heartless one couldn't respond to stimuli and an unknown amount of time until consciousness faded and stimuli could no longer be sensed.

If, on the other hand, the great vessels were instantly connected in such a way as to permit normal blood flow and zero blood loss, the contractions of arteries would allow the heartless one to live much longer, especially if they laid down to take the vertical pumping load away (the amount of energy required to pump blood from the bottoms of your feet to the top of your scalp is amazing).

[evenflow]

On a related note, is there any truth in those people-still-blink-after-being-guillotined stories?

[Dupont666]

evenflow said:

On a related note, is there any truth in those people-still-blink-after-being-guillotined stories?

Glad you took the time to read my post before writing that... well done

[shakotan]

Dupont666 said:

evenflow said:

On a related note, is there any truth in those people-still-blink-after-being-guillotined stories?

Glad you took the time to read my post before writing that... well done

Note the time of his posting, compared to yours. Your reply probably wasn't even submitted when he was typing his...

[Dupont666]

shakotan said:

Dupont666 said:

evenflow said:

On a related note, is there any truth in those people-still-blink-after-being-guillotined stories?

Glad you took the time to read my post before writing that... well done

Note the time of his posting, compared to yours. Your reply probably wasn't even submitted when he was typing his...

Details.... Details...

[HRG.]

Mr Trophy said:

Try it and let us know how you get on

Bloke in BB beat me to it...

[elster]

HRG. said:

Mr Trophy said:

Try it and let us know how you get on

Bloke in BB beat me to it...

Huh?

[HRG.]

elster said:

HRG. said:

Mr Trophy said:

Try it and let us know how you get on

Bloke in BB beat me to it...

Huh?

An untimely motorcycle related demise involving a heart, some ribs, a shoulder and a spleen.

Don't make me go into the gory details...

[elster]

HRG. said:

elster said:

HRG. said:

Mr Trophy said:

Try it and let us know how you get on

Bloke in BB beat me to it...

Huh?

An untimely motorcycle related demise involving a heart, some ribs, a shoulder and a spleen.

Don't make me go into the gory details...

Sounds nasty, you can keep the details thanks. I have just got my egg and soldiers ready.

[Menguin]

HRG. said:

elster said:

HRG. said:

Mr Trophy said:

Try it and let us know how you get on

Bloke in BB beat me to it...

Huh?

An untimely motorcycle related demise involving a heart, some ribs, a shoulder and a spleen.

Don't make me go into the gory details...

That happened in Big Brother? I knew I should have watched this one.

[Pesty]

Dupont666 said:

shakotan said:

Dupont666 said:

evenflow said:

On a related note, is there any truth in those people-still-blink-after-being-guillotined stories?

Glad you took the time to read my post before writing that... well done

Note the time of his posting, compared to yours. Your reply probably wasn't even submitted when he was typing his...

Details.... Details...

also the French beheading experiments are widely regarded as being rubish anyway. well thats what QI said and thats where i get all my facts from.

Anyway wouldnt the pain of having your heart ripped out overload your brain anyway and cause unconciousness?

[Kuroblack350]

I'd suggest the almost immediate loss of pressure would lead to black out, quickly followed by exsanguination in seconds

[evenflow]

shakotan said:

Dupont666 said:

evenflow said:

On a related note, is there any truth in those people-still-blink-after-being-guillotined stories?

Glad you took the time to read my post before writing that... well done

Note the time of his posting, compared to yours. Your reply probably wasn't even submitted when he was typing his...

^ What he said.

[mechsympathy]

Pesty said:

also the French beheading experiments are widely regarded as being rubish anyway. well thats what QI said and thats where i get all my facts from.

And arteries aren't muscular and don't contract, which throws the rest of Dupont's quote into doubt too.

Kuroblack350 said:

I'd suggest the almost immediate loss of pressure would lead to black out, quickly followed by exsanguination in seconds

The bleeding would be slowed as there's no pressure though.

The blood remaining within the brain would still contain oxygen to supply the brain cells. But if you think how swiftly someone can be rendered unconscious with a strangle hold, and bear in mind that that's despite the brain continuing to receive some supply via smaller arteries at the back of the neck. The brain uses a lot of oxygen so unconsciousness would come quickly.