I am stumped as to how anyone can survive a severed carotid artery.
A Youtube video showed a hockey goalie spitting ribbons of blood on the ice yet he survives.
Presumably, the first thing to do is to stop the bleeding. Can I guess that the EMS has to immediately dissect the neck and clamp the severed artery, all while blood is spraying out?
Assuming that were possible, what about the lack of blood to the brain?
Any specific reports of the incident you’re referring to?
Details of the account might help explain why the goalie, or anyone, could survive. Possibly it wasn’t servered all the way through or else he’d be dead in minutes. If it were just slightly cut there would be plenty of blood, but perhaps not so much the person can’t survive. Or maybe it was a whole different vein or artery that was damaged.
So, details?
I’d suspect his jugular vein got cut, not his carotid artery. Very survivable.
Unless the blood was bright red and pulsing strongly. Then it could have been the carotid, and surviving that without a deficit, even with immediate intervention, is tough. Though direct pressure until one is in an OR can sometimes work wonders. Sometimes.
There are also TWO carotid arteries, not just one. Concievably, if one is intact it could continue to supply sufficient blood to the brain to maintain life, IF you could stop the bleeding in the other in time.
It’s a rather infamous incident. There’s a full account here(which says the jugular was severed), and a summary on wiki(which claims carotid). And basically the goalie was saved because the team’s trainer happened to be a veteran combat medic.
Clint Malarchuk was the goalie and it was his internal carotid artery that was severed.
One of the team trainers was a medic in Vietnam. He got to the goalie quickly, jammed his fingers into the wound and pinched off the artery until surgeons could repair it.
The video is easily found on You Tube but is not for the faint of heart.
Per the linked article above, It was not his carotid artery, it was his jugular vein. As I suspected, early in this thread.
NOT carotid artery.
And broomie, I don’t think I’d want to depend on enough blood crossing through the Circle of Willis to adequately perfuse both hemispheres if one carotid did get severed. If it could routinely do that, TIAs due to carotid stenosis wouldn’t happen so often.
The wiki says internal carotid, which fits better with the description in the linked article which reported that “The blood poured onto the ice in spurts with every beat of his heart.”.
Which you can clearly see in the video.
And the cite for the wiki reference to internal carotid doesn’t mention internal carotid at all, but rather cites the jugular vein.
The video documentary mentions carotid, though
The subject line desperately needs a “Need Answer Fast”.
Check the reference that the statement points to, reference 1. It clearly says jugular. The quote is, "“I could see that he was bleeding and when he took his mask off you could tell that it was his jugular vein that was cut. The blood poured onto the ice in spurts with every beat of his heart.”
The other article references?
#2: The YouTube video
#3: Sports Illustrated article says jugular.
#4: ESPN, jugular
#5: Dead link
#6: ESPN, jugular
#7: Dead link
#8: Copy of #4
#9: Record Courier, jugular
#10: Dead link
#11: TSN, jugular
#12: Dead link
#13: Homepage redirect
#14: Nothing about the incident
So the Wiki article claims it was a carotid injury but without any supporting evidence, and with the very reference pointing to that statement outright saying “jugular.” Another hockey player with a carotid injury is mentioned in references 4 and 8; that could have been part of the confusion, but it’s sloppy writing. If Malarchuk really had a carotid injury, you should be able to pull up a real reference to it somewhere. Whoever wrote that part of the article was very sloppy.
Edit: Scooped by QtM!
Having watched the video, I’m unsure. The jugular vein, when opened, will pour out blood at a very good clip, and will gush out a bit more with each respiration. An artery, when opened, will spray blood out many, many feet with each pump of the heart. I’ve seen it hit the ceiling at times.
In some views, the blood is quite black, in others, it’s fairly red. Could be a lighting/lens effect rather than an accurate depiction of the color.
Could go either way, but surviving without a significant deficit would be more likely with a jugular vein injury. I’ll vote jugular.
BTW, Richard Zednik is the hockey player with the (external) carotid injury. Sliced but not severed. Article on the surgery.
There was definitely at least a foot long stream of blood and it was spurting. Would that happen if it was the jugular?
Pretty confusing articles, as noted all the cites in the wiki say ‘jugular’. All the descriptions sound like an artery - whether a severed internal carotid is more survivable than if it had been the common carotid, I can’t say.
Not to get picky, but “survive” is not the same as “able bodied and mentally whole”. No, I wouldn’t want to depend on the Circle of Willis in that manner either, I’m just saying maybe it might be possible though the odds of Major Permanent Problems is probably really high.
“Circle of Willis” 
Just down a pace from the “Bruce of Willis”.
Yes, and across the hall from the “Octagon of Norris” and downstairs from the “Irregular Polygon of Schwarzenegger.”