Surviving an axe blow to the head/face?

[gytalf2000]

What is the likelihood of someone surviving an axe blow to the head/face? I can't imagine a determined blow from an axe blade being anything less than fatal!

[Kalhoun]

I know you probably won't believe this but my ex's wife was having problems with her boyfriend and she buried an axe in his face while he slept. He lost his eye but lived to toss her out a 3rd floor window. So no, it's not always fatal.

[Sal Ammoniac]

Anecdotally, former Iraqi strongman Iyad Allawi was attacked with an ax by agents of Saddam Hussein. He got over it, needless to say.

[Sal Ammoniac]

I know you probably won't believe this but my ex's wife was having problems with her boyfriend and she buried an axe in his face while he slept. He lost his eye but lived to toss her out a 3rd floor window. So no, it's not always fatal.
Okay, but how about the fall from the 3rd-floor window?

[Bill Door]

Remember Phineas Gage? (http://www.deakin.edu.au/hmnbs/psychology/gagepage/Pgstory.php) He had a 1-1/2 inch diameter metal tamping rod 3 feet 7 inches long shoot through his skull, entering under his left cheek bone and coming out the top of his head, ending up close to 100 feet behind him. He not only lived, but may not have even lost consciousness. 10 weeks in hospital, and he was home again. OK, it's not an axe, but if someone could survive that, an axe is certainly possible.

[Blake]

Surprisingly enough people do often survive such attacks if they get medical treatment. Axe, cane knife and machete wounds to the head and face are quiet common in New Guinea, to the point where any hospital will expect see at least one a week. Usually these are cases of attempted murder where the victim was assumed to be dead and later found alive by friends, and on occasion regains consciousness spontaneously.

The thing is that the human head is tougher than you think, and it takes a lot to actually crack a skull. Usually the blow embeds in the bone or glances off. The injuries aren't pretty but with modern medicine they aren't usually fatal either. I wouldn't give anyone much chance of surviving an axe blow that actually penetrated the brain, but few attacks manage to achieve that.

On a side note there is a moderately famous x-ray, taken in New Guinea, of a man with a cane knife right through his head, entering just above the nose and exiting the back of the head. The man lived with only minor brain damage because the knife neatly slipped between the hemispheres of his brain, pushing them apart and doing relatively little damage. Of course a cane knife is much thinner than an axe and I suspect a similar axe would would have required a burial permit.

[ryobserver]

All blows to the skull are not created equal. An axe blow to the face (below the forehead) might slice much of your face off, but it wouldn't necessarily jar the cranium enough to cause real brain damage. Assuming you didn't bleed to death, or aspirate blood (or bits of bone, or teeth) and choke to death, you could well survive such an injury.

Axe blows to the forehead, or the sides, top and (especially) back of the skull, are another matter, of course. People do survive perfectly horrible brain injuries, as the Phineas Gage case shows, but sometimes they wish they hadn't.

Also, all axes (and axe wielders) are not created equal. Some hit harder than others.

[Kalhoun]

Okay, but how about the fall from the 3rd-floor window?
As I recall she didn't even break a bone. Cute couple, huh?

[Sal Ammoniac]

Well, I begin to think maybe she's a cat. That would be a cute couple!

[Palooka]

"The guy lifted up the axe, and called out Allah Akbar, the jihad prayer, before they do suicides, and he swung the axe into Trevor's head," Capt. Kevin Schamuhn, the platoon commander, told CTV News...

[Trevor] is in serious but stable condition and will be transferred to a U.S.-operated military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany...From Here (http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060303/afghan_canada_bomb_060304/20060305/).

So there is another one. Apparently axe-attacks are surprisingly common and non-lethal.

[msmith537]

I know you probably won't believe this but my ex's wife was having problems with her boyfriend and she buried an axe in his face while he slept. He lost his eye but lived to toss her out a 3rd floor window. So no, it's not always fatal.


I want to party with you, Cowboy!

[Der Trihs]

On a side note there is a moderately famous x-ray, taken in New Guinea, of a man with a cane knife right through his head, entering just above the nose and exiting the back of the head. The man lived with only minor brain damage because the knife neatly slipped between the hemispheres of his brain, pushing them apart and doing relatively little damage.I'm reminded of a news story years ago, complete with X-ray, of a man whose doctor's described him as the luckiest man in the world. An accident with a nail gun imbedded a nail next to his eye, driven flush to his flesh. Results : a minor injury. It missed the eye, the optic nerves, the brain and everything else that wouldn't heal easily or at all; a millimeter or less to either side or deeper and he would have suffered permanent damage. Seeing the X ray of this long nail stuck right through his head was quite impressive.

[mittu]

The father of a friend of mine survived an axe in the head from a rival football fan when the two firms clashed. It was most likely 'only' a handaxe rather than some double-blade monster.

[Contrapuntal]

I know you probably won't believe this but my ex's wife was having problems with her boyfriend and she buried an axe in his face while he slept. He lost his eye but lived to toss her out a 3rd floor window. So no, it's not always fatal.Did your ex divorce her after that happened? Or was he afraid to? ;)

[Kalhoun]

Did your ex divorce her after that happened? Or was he afraid to? ;)
Well, now I may have gotten the timeline wrong. She was seeing this guy while they were married, but in hindsight I don't think the axe incident happened until after my ex died. She called me (collect) from jail denying the whole thing. There were other chilling details involving teen-aged boys and attempts to inject air into the guy's veins. She beat the charge of attempted murder and hung out with the guy for quite a while afterward (even after being tossed out the window, as I recall). She lost custody of my son's brother and then wandered aimlessly for years. She remarried and was arrested for running the new husband over with her pickup truck. Somehow she beat that one as well and is now on the wagon and pregnant (her children will be 22 years apart). Go figure.

[Surly Chick]

I feel like I lead such a sheltered life. No one I know has ever been attacked by an axe or thrown from a window. Sigh.

[Dr_Paprika]

People who get killed from axe blows probably don't seek medical treatment. Don't try this at home, kids. Just in case you get attacked while on vacation, the following web page allows you to say "There's an axe in my head" in 112 languages.

http://www.yamara.com/axe/index.html

[Sal Ammoniac]

Of course, that's only useful if the ax misses Broca's area. If you take a whack there, you'll be a little tongue-tied, to say the least.

[Bill Door]

Well, now I may have gotten the timeline wrong. She was seeing this guy while they were married, but in hindsight I don't think the axe incident happened until after my ex died. She called me (collect) from jail denying the whole thing. There were other chilling details involving teen-aged boys and attempts to inject air into the guy's veins. She beat the charge of attempted murder and hung out with the guy for quite a while afterward (even after being tossed out the window, as I recall). She lost custody of my son's brother and then wandered aimlessly for years. She remarried and was arrested for running the new husband over with her pickup truck. Somehow she beat that one as well and is now on the wagon and pregnant (her children will be 22 years apart). Go figure.

I knew a guy who was cheating on his wife and she shot him in the stomach as he slept. They lived happily ever after, and that was 25 years ago. I asked him, "WTF?" He said, "I didn't know she still loved me." Takes all kinds, and it'd be a funny world if we were all the same.

[teela brown]

I knew a guy who was cheating on his wife and she shot him in the stomach as he slept. They lived happily ever after, and that was 25 years ago. I asked him, "WTF?" He said, "I didn't know she still loved me." Takes all kinds, and it'd be a funny world if we were all the same.

I hope the folks who wrote the movie I Love You To Death pay your friend royalties!

[Scoundrel Swanswater]

I hope the folks who wrote the movie I Love You To Death pay your friend royalties!
You are aware that this was based on a real story, right?
They made it a little funnier, but I think they did get the facts of the story straight.
My google-fu isn't strong enough to locate the story, but I remember reading about this.
Apparently they are also still together and happily married. :eek:

[msmith537]

I guess I'm just a bit sensitive. Axes to the face or bullet wounds are kind of a relationship dealbreaker for me.

[gabriela]

People who get killed from axe blows probably don't seek medical treatment.

Darn it. I've never had an axe blow corpse. I must move to someplace where the homicidal maniacs are more adventurous.

[Shodan]

I guess I'm just a bit sensitive. Axes to the face or bullet wounds are kind of a relationship dealbreaker for me.
Don't be so judgemental. :)
Just in case you get attacked while on vacation, the following web page allows you to say "There's an axe in my head" in 112 languages.

http://www.yamara.com/axe/index.html
"I will not buy this tobacconist - he has buried an ax in my head."

Regards,
Shodan

[Count Blucher]

I don't have an axe story, but will a hand-and-a-half bastard sword strike do? :D

A few years back at a cub scout outing, the boys were treated to a display of medieval weapons and some staged fights between actors in armor with swords and shields from a group of ‘Medieval Times' actors. At the end, during the Q&A, the scouts asked the actors if there were ever accidents. All of the other actors then pointed to one actor with a bushy full beard who was smiling and blushing furiously. Evidently a few years prior, he was practicing the choreography with another actor and he dodged the wrong way. He caught half-powered hit to the side of his face (full strength would have cleaved off his skull above the jaw). We were told that it was 150-stiches to close the wound, which sliced from the back of his jaw to the side of his mouth. We were also told that he was clean-shaven back then, but that he wears a full beard now to hide the scar. :eek:

[Salt Seller]

My father (now nearing 70) was hit in the head with an axe as a kid. You can feel the dent in the top of his skull. Apparently, he and a friend were digging a hole (for some reason, this is always fun when you're a kid). It was in Canada, and the ground was still frozen, so his friend would chop it up with an axe and then he would shovel the bits out of the way. At some critical moment, their timing was off, and my father leaned in to shovel as his friend was swinging the axe. To hear my father tell it, he felt the bonk on his head and saw his friend go white, but didn't know what had happened until he put his hand up and felt blood in his hair. I have no idea what medical care he received, since they were pretty rural, but no doubt it helped that he hed been hit by someone under the age of ten.

He also hit himself in the leg with an axe, but that was another time.

[gytalf2000]

Well, you guys have really given me a lot of interesting stories and facts about "axe/similar object to the head" incidents! I cannot believe that the Phineas Gage incident didn't come to mind as I was composing my initial post! This has been an interesting thread! Thanks!