Has anyone ever heard from a reliable source that if you were punched in the nose with an uppercut or something similar, it can kill you? I remember hearing that all the time when I was little but I remember reading an article from a source I would consider a lot more reliable than a fellow 6th grader or Hollywood saying that was a myth. It said that the cartilage in the nose is too soft to actually puncture the skull into the brain. Anyone know the straight dope on this?
I read the same stories you did, and what you’re describing involves what’s called (I think) a bone called the “hyoid process”. Supposedly, hitting it just right drives it up into the forebrain and kills you. It’s not the cartilage, and it’s not just a simple uppercut–you have to really drive the heel of your hand up into the bridge of the person’s nose.
That move where you send your palm straight up into your advisaries nose is called the “Hail Mary”. To get your palm lined up perfectly with someones nose so the carilage dosen’t buckle and penetrates the brain is more luck than skill I think. There are probably other “touch of death”(one hit kill) moves that you can find that are more reliable than that one but I haven’t heard if they are possible either.
The answer to your question as phrased is “No.”
I have never heard this from a “reliable source.”
IIRC, there was a post-fight interview with Mike Tyson (in his boxing prime) where he claimed that was exactly what he was trying to do to his opponent. It was pretty jarring to hear Tyson’s whiny voice basically saying that he was trying to kill the guy.
Not that I consider Tyson to be a “reliable source”.
Getting a little off-topic here: wouldn’t that be attempted homicide? Or does boxing allow you to do that legally?
Cannot speak authoritatively, but I have heard more than one martial arts instructor simply dismiss this as not a realistic possibility. On the other hand, I have never had a martial arts instructor suggest this as an object. Think about it - how many boxing rounds are sparred/fought every day? Ever hear of this happening? Tho boxers do die from head trauma, bone/cartilage driven into their brain is not the reason.
Hitting the nose is nice mainly because it causes considerable pain. Generally, the recipient’s eyes water, which is to your advantage. If you bust his nose, he may bleed profusely, which may cause him distress. (But, for obvious reasons, you may not want to go out of your way to have someone spewing fluids all over the place.) Also, if anything smarts more than having your nose broken, it would probably have to be getting a second shot in your already broken nose.
Nose is a handy target simply because it is smack dab in the middle of the face. Makes an easy target. And most folks don’t like getting smacked in the mug. IMO, if you are going to the head, better targets to incapacitate an opponent are the eyes or the throat. And if you want to cause damage, ya just can’t beat an elbow to the temple.
The “hyoid process” is in the wrong place to be punched into your brain through your nose. The hyoid apparatus in mammals like us is connected on one end to the temporal bones on the side of your head (near the ears) and on the other end to the thyroid cartilage of your larynx (see Walker and Homberger, 1992. Vertebrate Dissection, p. 94). It does not run near your nose, but since it does run into your throat, it may be involved in a few painful strikes to that area.
I really don’t know, but I kind of doubt that someone would be able to strike any of the bones near your nose into your brain. If you’re doing enough damage to move those heavily fused bones around the upper face, you’ll probably kill the person anyway, don’t you think? You’re also probably using a heavy object and not your fist…
Also, the brain can take a surprising amount of trauma and survive. A gunshot wound to the head, unless it penetrates the most primitive part of the brain (very tiny, relative to the rest of the mammalian brain), causing instant death, the victim is usually OK and often totally unaffected. Closed-head injuries like concussions, which do minor damage to most of the brain, have a much greater chance for mental impairment, but they’re still usually not fatal.
It’s a myth. As someone pointed out, there are no loose bones in the nose that can easily be driven into the brain. This ‘technique’ is just another version of the Vulcan nerve pinch - a screenwriter’s gimmick to end scenes quickly and/or add some mystery to a character.
Anyway, even if you did drive something up into the forebrain, you’d just lobotomize the guy. Probably wouldn’t kill them. One form of lobotomy used an ice pick which was pounded through the eye socket and then scrambled around in the forebrain. This way there’d be no lobotomy scar.
Well, I work for a Dr., so I ran this one by him. Yes,if you get hit in the nose hard enough, it can kill you. It can ram shards of bone or the bone itself into your brain. He also remarked that ANY blow hard enough in the head area can kill you. Even getting punched hard enough in the ear can do serious damage or kill you if it’s powerful enough.
Some years ago in Fort Myers, Florida a young guy walked onto a crowded dance floor and, according to witnesses, used the heel of his hand to hit another guy on the nose. The guy who took the hit collapsed instantly and later died. I cannot cite the date but I did read this in the Fort Myers News Press. It may have been a lucky punch but it sure sounds as if the attacker fully intended to kill his victim.