# Crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead stories...any true? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 19, 2010, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567 "2010-01-19T16:17:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/1 "2010-01-19T16:17:35Z")
First… did ya know what I was talking about before you opened the thread? I can’t think of any examples, but I’ve read stories and I think at least one movie where someone was crushed by something, or two somethings, like two train cars, and definitely going to die because the entire lower half of their body has been irreparably destroyed, absolutely no question. However, because they are still crushed, they are still alive, and conscious, and have the opportunity to say goodbye to loved ones. (Because the exsanguination that would otherwise occur is prevented by the crush itself, acting as a tourniquet). Has this ever happened in real life? If it has, how did the release part occur? Did they just release the person, knowing death would follow? Wait until they died slowly? Helped them die first with drugs? I need to know. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/2 "2010-01-19T16:21:55Z")
Just a guess, but I think the shock would do a good job of rendering them unconscious quite quickly. ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/3 "2010-01-19T16:34:25Z")
It has and does happen–sometimes it is referred to as a tampanade situation. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/4 "2010-01-19T16:39:46Z")
Homicide: Life on the Streets did an episode about a guy getting caught between a subway car and the platform: [Subway](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subway_%28Homicide:_Life_on_the_Street%29). It was inspired by a story told by a purported NYC cop on the old HBO show Taxicab Confessions. I remember seeing it on HBO long ago and got the suspicion is it was the cop equivalent of a ghost story told around a campfire. Can’t find anything online that says absolutely that an incident like that actually occurred. ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/5 "2010-01-19T16:51:49Z")
It’s the [Last Kiss](http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/lastkiss.asp) urban legend. Snopes has no record of it actually occurring. Coincidentally, my uncle told me this story two years in a row as something that happened to a “friend of a friend”, very earnestly both times. I’d told him about the legend the first time, but he was oblivious to that fact when repeating the story the second time. It was probably the best example I’ve ever experienced of someone passing on an urban legend as if it was 100% true with no hint of doubt. Yes, some people really believe these things. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/6 "2010-01-19T16:58:32Z")
> [@hellpaso](#): > > It has and does happen–sometimes it is referred to as a tampanade situation. Mental note - throw away pickled olive spread when you get home tonight . . . It happened in “Signs” as well. Thanks for the SNopes reference, I was tryign to think where I’d heard that story. Probably the only episode of Taxicab Confessions I’ve ever watched. . . ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/7 "2010-01-19T17:00:10Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > I can’t think of any examples, but I’ve read stories and I think at least one movie where someone was crushed by something,… the entire lower half of their body has been irreparably destroyed, absolutely no question. However, because they are still crushed, they are still alive, and conscious, and have the opportunity to say goodbye to loved ones. I think that happened in that stupid Mel Gibson movie about corn circles and aliens. Is that the one? Not exactly a reliable source. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/8 "2010-01-19T17:00:27Z")
My grandfather was a railroad dick in the first half of the last century. He supposedly was in the switchyard when someone got caught in between two cars and died when they were uncoupled. Sure, it’s an old family tale, but it doesn’t seem like the sort of story that a man would make up to tell their daughter. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/9 "2010-01-19T17:26:46Z")
‘Emergency!’ ran it about a million years ago. A guy got caught between a truck and a loading dock and Gage and DeSoto had to fret about the effect of relieving the pressure on him. IIRC they riffed on the toxins that were building up in his lower half that would overwhelm his organs when released. Not the greatest cite at all, but given Jack Webb’s (the producer/creater whatnot) fanatical attention to detail and such it might have some play. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/10 "2010-01-19T17:29:34Z")
The conventional wisdom for most stab wounds is to leave the object in the wound until medical help can arrive. Removing the object can increase blood loss. With an open wound, you’re told to put pressure on it. And, if any spinal injuries are suspected, you’re told not to move the victim at all, for fear of making the injury worse If the same facts hold true for victims of crushing trauma, keeping them pinned might very well keep their blood pressure at a healthy level and prevent spine-damaging movement. Freeing them could release the pressure on their wounds and cause the rate of blood loss to increase. So I don’t know of any verifiable stories, but it sure seems plausible given what we know about injuries. (Now, we do have to maintain some skepticism about Hollywood portrayals. Every character in Hollywood lives long enough to deliver their last speech.) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/11 "2010-01-19T17:37:48Z")
Gary Jennings’s excellent historical novel _Aztec_ has a scene in which a man working in a quarry is neatly severed at the waist by two sharp-edged giant stones, with each half of his body pinched shut; he remains conscious and lucid for several minutes. May very well be a medical urban legend, though. ---
**Author:** ![cgg419](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cgg419/32/2847_2.png) [@cgg419](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cgg419)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/12 "2010-01-19T17:56:55Z")
[QUOTE=Wikipedia] It is a reperfusion injury that appears after the release of the crushing pressure [/QUOTE] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crush\_syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crush_syndrome) ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/13 "2010-01-19T18:05:40Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Mental note - throw away pickled olive spread when you get home tonight . . . I think you are confusing it with something else. Tamponaid situations are what happens when you need to stop the escape of blood from the body. Nothing with olives. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/14 "2010-01-19T18:15:14Z")
Tapenade is a spread made of olives and capers and usually a few other things. A friend of mine is a paramedic, and has seen a few people die when the steering wheel is pulled off of their lap- it had been holding the ruptured femoral artery closed. ---
**Author:** ![LurkerInNJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@LurkerInNJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkerInNJ)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/15 "2010-01-19T18:16:26Z")
It really happened. His name is Truman Duncan. He called 911 and his family. He lived, but he is missing most of the lower half of his body. [http://www.today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26834245/ns/today-today\_people/](http://www.today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26834245/ns/today-today_people/) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/16 "2010-01-19T18:18:54Z")
I know of an accident where a woman was run over by the South Shore and South Bend railroad (or maybe it was a Metra train - it _was_ at the Randolph Street Station, back before it was changed to Millennium) where she remained conscious for some time after the injury, but clearly had fatal wounds. I don’t recall exactly what all the details were - I had to find an alternate way home that night and it’s not like anyone was going to tell a nosy bystander anything anyway - but she might have lived long enough to get to the hospital There is another accident in a steel mill in Gary, Indiana I know of where a large, heavy object fell on a man who, again, remained conscious for some time after being crushed, related to me by the former crane operator who removed said heavy object from the man. In that case, they were able to get a phone extension out to him, but the man was in agony and hardly calm about things. According to my limited information, in both cases when the crushing objects were removed they bled out rapidly, but it wasn’t “instant”. So people can receive fatal injuries yet survive for a brief time, even be conscious and able to talk, but in neither case did it happen quite like in the stories/movies/urban legends. And no, no one helped them “die first with drugs”. I always suspected that it was an urban legend with some small basis in truth - after all, people do die in horrible accidents, cut up or crushed and the like - but distorted to make it all the more heart-wrenching. If something prevents you from bleeding out immediately you might live, conscious, for a time afterward but shock and disruption of your circulatory system, as well as other damage, will kill you fairly quickly even if you aren’t moved. ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/17 "2010-01-19T18:20:23Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > First.. did ya know what I was talking about before you opened the thread? Homicide Life On the Streets episode. I know that neighborhood well. You refer to it as a movie, but it was a tv show, the one with the train. ---
**Author:** ![LurkerInNJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@LurkerInNJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkerInNJ)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/18 "2010-01-19T18:33:12Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > It was inspired by a story told by a purported NYC cop on the old HBO show Taxicab Confessions. I remember seeing it on HBO long ago and got the suspicion is it was the cop equivalent of a ghost story told around a campfire. Can’t find anything online that says absolutely that an incident like that actually occurred. New York Magazine had an article with a story about a little girl who was bisected by a subway train and was still alive when the emergency team got there. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/19 "2010-01-19T18:43:43Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] I think you are confusing it with something else. [/QUOTE] No, if you Google the word “tampanade” you get more hits on the first page for olive spreads than for cardiac tamp **o** nade. FWIW, I used to work with a guy who told the tale of someone his father worked with and an incident involving an open-platform freight elevator. The gist of the story was the guy hopped onto the elevator as it was going up, slipped and got squashed between the elevator platform and the doorframe. Paramedics assess him and his family is called in to say goodbye. They do, the elevator is backed off, and he suffers a rapid and fatal exsanguination. I found a [PDF copy](http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9803E1DD133BE033A25757C2A96E9C94629FD7CF) of a news clipping from the August 24, 1883 _New York Times_ that describes a similar sort of injury. Death was not instant, but it did apparently come quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567/20 "2010-01-19T18:44:10Z")
> [@LurkerInNJ](#): > > It really happened. His name is Truman Duncan. He called 911 and his family. He lived, but he is missing most of the lower half of his body. > > [http://www.today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26834245/ns/today-today\_people/](http://www.today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26834245/ns/today-today_people/) Wow. And it took the emergency responders 45 freakin’ minutes to get to him! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crushed-and-alive-until-uncrushed-then-immediately-dead-stories-any-true/525567.md?page=2)