Tag: choke

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Hanging

Posted on by Jinavie

Hanging is one of the most popular methods of execution and suicide throughout the ages. It is typically performed by fashioning a noose (most commonly with the eponymous hangman’s knot), placing it around the victim’s (or own) neck. The person then falls from a short height (e.g. dropped from a stand or stepping off a stool), upon which the force of the body pulling down causes the noose to tighten. This can kill a person via two ways. Firstly, if the force of the drop and the knot is strong enough, the sheer force of the noose tightening and the person being suspended by their neck will cause their neck to break. This causes spinal cord injury at the cervical level, where the brainstem lies. When the brainstem is damaged, the person loses control of autonomic processes such as breathing, causing instant death. Secondly, if the neck does not break, the person will be strangulated by the noose. This will kill the person through either choking (from airway obstruction) or brain ischaemia (as the carotid arteries are cut off). Pressure on the carotid artery may also cause something called a carotid reflex, where powerful nervous signals cause the heart to beat so slowly that it stops.

It is said that whether a person dies a quick, clean death via neck fracture or a slow, painful death via strangulation depends on how good the knot is. A hangman’s knot is made up of a loop with a series of coils above it. The more coils there are, the more friction it adds to the knot, making the noose harder to pull closed. A true hangman’s knot is defined as thirteen coils, which provides enough resistance to cause a neck fracture when a person falls. If there are fewer knots than that, the knot will tighten too quickly around the neck and not provide enough resistance to cause a neck fracture. This leads to strangulation, which is far more excruciating and a very inhumane way to die. If there are too many knots, there will be too much resistance and there is a risk of decapitation, leading to a very messy situation.

In forensic medicine, there are certain signs that reveal a victim was hung. For example, the C2 spine (second vertebrae in the neck) will exhibit a hangman’s fracture, where there is fractures on both sides. Fracture of the hyoid bone (a small bone below the chin) is also a classic sign of hanging. There will also be bruises along where the noose was and every sphincter would be open (which leads to immediate voiding of the bowels and bladder at the time of death). If the person died of strangulation rather than neck fracture, they will show signs of asphyxiation, such as blue lips (cyanosis). Another interesting result of hanging is something called a death erection. As the name suggests, it is when a corpse is found with an erection, most likely due to hanging. This is probably caused by the noose crushing the cerebellum, causing a reflex erection. The same phenomenon has been observed in women as well.

Posted in Psychology & Medicine

Alien Hand Syndrome

Posted on by Jinavie

There is a very rare, disturbing and interesting medical condition called alien hand syndrome (AHS). An individual with this neurological disorder has full sensation in the rogue hand, but is unable to control its movements and does not feel that it is a part of their body. The hand becomes personified, as if it has a will of its own, and its owner will usually deny ownership of the limb.

Though AHS was first identified in 1908, it was not clearly defined until 1972. Depending on the cause of the injury, the movements may be random or purposeful, and may affect the dominant or non-dominant hand. The symptoms are brought on by an injury to the brain, such as head trauma, stroke, tumour, or infection. It can also be a side effect of a certain kind of brain surgery where the patient has the two hemispheres of the brain separated to relieve severe epilepsy.

If the AHS is caused by separation of the corpus callosum (the area of the brain that connects the two halves of the brain) by surgery or injury, the movements are usually complex purposeful behaviour, such as compulsive manipulation of tools, undoing buttons, or tearing clothes. For example, a right-handed person is left-hemisphere-dominant, thus their left hand (controlled by the right hemisphere) will become “alien”. Sometimes the sufferer is completely unaware of what the hand is doing until it is brought to his or her attention, or until they happen to see it themselves. 

Strangely, many of the alien hand’s actions are the complete opposite of what the person is doing with the other hand. For example, if they start packing a suitcase, the alien hand will unpack it. It is believed that one half of the brain (usually the right brain) is unaware of why the other hand is doing something (due to the lack of connection between the two hemispheres) and so proceeds to “correct” it. There are also reports of the alien hand attacking the patient by hitting them or even trying to strangle them in their sleep. 

There is currently no treatment for alien hand syndrome, but the symptoms can often be relieved by giving the rogue hand an object to manipulate, to keep it occupied. One patient whose alien hand had a compulsion of holding on to door handles or other objects to stop the man from walking was given a cane. The alien hand would grab on to the cane and not interfere with the patient’s walking.

There is currently no treatment for alien hand syndrome, but the symptoms can often be relieved by giving the rogue hand an object to manipulate to keep it occupied. One patient whose alien hand had a compulsion of holding on to door handles or other objects to stop the man from walking was given a cane. The alien hand would grab on to the cane and not interfere with the patient’s walking.

Although it is a distressing condition, some patients learn to live with the disease. For instance, when one patient’s alien hand kept throwing away the cigarette her dominant hand put in her mouth, she shrugged and said: “I guess ‘he’ doesn’t want me to smoke that”. Perhaps the alien hand is simply a way for the subconscious mind to physically act on the conscious mind.