Doper docs can you really [kill yourself by biting off your own tongue?]

Factual Questions
21

I vaguely recall from parochial grade school an early priest missionary who was tortured by an American Indian tribe (Iroquois, maybe?). Among other things, they either cut off his tongue or cut/burned a hole in it.

But he survived, and lived for several years after that. Eventually was declared blessed, and may now be an official saint.

All this despite this happening a couple of centuries ago, and with no t much medical treatment available to him. So it appears obvious that amputation of the tongue is not a fatal injury.

22

What about swallowing your own tongue?

This was a plot point in Silence of the Lambs, when Lecter convinces another inmate to commit suicide using this method. It cropped up somewhere else, as well (maybe a Jack Reacher novel).

Is it truly possible?

Si