# If you jumped off a tall building, would you feel it when you hit the ground? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 19, 2003, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-jumped-off-a-tall-building-would-you-feel-it-when-you-hit-the-ground/182948 "2003-06-19T16:39:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chetumal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@Chetumal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chetumal)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-jumped-off-a-tall-building-would-you-feel-it-when-you-hit-the-ground/182948/41 "2016-09-19T22:31:45Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Would you say the same thing if it were a torture victim accidentally slipping over the Rumsfeld Line (organ failure) after a week or so? He was just quoting Haywood from the movie “The Shawshank Redemption” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-jumped-off-a-tall-building-would-you-feel-it-when-you-hit-the-ground/182948/42 "2016-09-19T23:00:43Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > … Weir cited a case in which a witness saw a decapitated head immediately after an automobile accident. The witness claimed the face on the decapitated head showed signs of shock, panic then grief before losing consciousness and any sign of life. > > I have to admit reading Weir’s account of the auto accident & decapitated head showing signs of life gave me the chills. That sounds a lot like a witness to a decapitation whom Cecil cited in a column on the subject. IIRC, it was a taxi cab (in Korea?), and the victim’s face registered shock and panic after seeing his separated body. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-jumped-off-a-tall-building-would-you-feel-it-when-you-hit-the-ground/182948/43 "2016-09-19T23:35:53Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Second, I find it really hard to believe than any EMT or simillar “first responder” would do that - you provide comfort to the dying, no matter how hopeless the situation. Cite: I was an EMT who has worked a mass casualty incident (around 100 patients in a massive freeway pileup in dense fog) In a mass multicasualty situation you are incorrect. Black triage tags are placed on dead and or “unsalvageable”. Extensive 2nd/3rd degree burns, major open head trauma multiple severe thoracic penetrating injuries other major multiple trauma situations where significant sections of the body are ripped away/crushed. As shitty as it might sound, many of these people are unlikely to survive transport and will require massive intervention requiring 3-4 people to work them when you only have a few people on the scene to work them initially. If these types of patients were the only patient in a situation some of them are worth a shot, but even then we are talking 20-30% odds of landing in the hospital still alive and many of those still dont make it through hospital ED or emergency surgical level intervention. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-jumped-off-a-tall-building-would-you-feel-it-when-you-hit-the-ground/182948/44 "2016-09-20T04:58:22Z")
> [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](#): > > Certainly, depending on which way you landed, it’s an interesting debate to know the last thing which went through your mind. > > I’m tipping your arsehole. Yep. Old joke about “what’s the last thing that went through the bug’s mind when he hit the windshield?” (You guessed it.) ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-jumped-off-a-tall-building-would-you-feel-it-when-you-hit-the-ground/182948/45 "2016-09-20T22:30:13Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > That sounds a lot like a witness to a decapitation whom Cecil cited in a column on the subject. IIRC, it was a taxi cab (in Korea?), and the victim’s face registered shock and panic after seeing his separated body. It’s surely probable that Weir is (without saying so) citing [this column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1172/does-the-head-remain-briefly-conscious-after-decapitation) by Cecil. So, despite it being Cecil and all, she was effectively citing some broadly random shit on the internet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-jumped-off-a-tall-building-would-you-feel-it-when-you-hit-the-ground/182948.md?page=2)