# Surviving an axe blow to the head/face?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 9, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060 "2006-08-09T20:58:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/1 "2006-08-09T20:58:23Z")
What is the likelihood of someone surviving an axe blow to the head/face? I can’t imagine a determined blow from an axe blade being anything less than fatal!
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2006, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/2 "2006-08-09T21:48:33Z")
I know you probably won’t believe this but my ex’s wife was having problems with her boyfriend and she buried an axe in his face while he slept. He lost his eye but lived to toss her out a 3rd floor window. So no, it’s not always fatal.
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### Author:  [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2006, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/3 "2006-08-09T21:50:18Z")
Anecdotally, former Iraqi strongman Iyad Allawi was attacked with an ax by agents of Saddam Hussein. He got over it, needless to say.
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### Author:  [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/4 "2006-08-09T21:54:18Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#):
>
> I know you probably won’t believe this but my ex’s wife was having problems with her boyfriend and she buried an axe in his face while he slept. He lost his eye but lived to toss her out a 3rd floor window. So no, it’s not always fatal.
Okay, but how about the fall from the 3rd-floor window?
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### Author:  [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/5 "2006-08-09T22:04:53Z")
Remember [Phineas Gage?](http://www.deakin.edu.au/hmnbs/psychology/gagepage/Pgstory.php) He had a 1-1/2 inch diameter metal tamping rod 3 feet 7 inches long shoot through his skull, entering under his left cheek bone and coming out the top of his head, ending up close to 100 feet behind him. He not only lived, but may not have even lost consciousness. 10 weeks in hospital, and he was home again. OK, it’s not an axe, but if someone could survive that, an axe is certainly possible.
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### Author:  [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/6 "2006-08-09T22:06:15Z")
Surprisingly enough people do often survive such attacks if they get medical treatment. Axe, cane knife and machete wounds to the head and face are quiet common in New Guinea, to the point where any hospital will expect see at least one a week. Usually these are cases of attempted murder where the victim was assumed to be dead and later found alive by friends, and on occasion regains consciousness spontaneously.
The thing is that the human head is tougher than you think, and it takes a lot to actually crack a skull. Usually the blow embeds in the bone or glances off. The injuries aren’t pretty but with modern medicine they aren’t usually fatal either. I wouldn’t give anyone much chance of surviving an axe blow that actually penetrated the brain, but few attacks manage to achieve that.
On a side note there is a moderately famous x-ray, taken in New Guinea, of a man with a cane knife right through his head, entering just above the nose and exiting the back of the head. The man lived with only minor brain damage because the knife neatly slipped between the hemispheres of his brain, pushing them apart and doing relatively little damage. Of course a cane knife is much thinner than an axe and I suspect a similar axe would would have required a burial permit.
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### Author:  [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/7 "2006-08-09T22:30:07Z")
All blows to the skull are not created equal. An axe blow to the face (below the forehead) might slice much of your face off, but it wouldn’t necessarily jar the cranium enough to cause real brain damage. Assuming you didn’t bleed to death, or aspirate blood (or bits of bone, or teeth) and choke to death, you could well survive such an injury.
Axe blows to the forehead, or the sides, top and (especially) back of the skull, are another matter, of course. People do survive perfectly horrible brain injuries, as the Phineas Gage case shows, but sometimes they wish they hadn’t.
Also, all axes (and axe wielders) are not created equal. Some hit harder than others.
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2006, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/8 "2006-08-10T00:38:36Z")
> [@Sal Ammoniac](#):
>
> Okay, but how about the fall from the 3rd-floor window?
As I recall she didn’t even break a bone. Cute couple, huh?
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### Author:  [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2006, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/9 "2006-08-10T01:10:26Z")
Well, I begin to think maybe she’s a cat. That _would_ be a cute couple!
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### Author:  [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2006, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/10 "2006-08-10T01:12:54Z")
> [@](#):
>
> “The guy lifted up the axe, and called out Allah Akbar, the jihad prayer, before they do suicides, and he swung the axe into Trevor’s head,” Capt. Kevin Schamuhn, the platoon commander, told CTV News…
>
> [Trevor] is in serious but stable condition and will be transferred to a U.S.-operated military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany…
From [Here](http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060303/afghan_canada_bomb_060304/20060305/).
So there is another one. Apparently axe-attacks are surprisingly common and non-lethal.
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2006, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/11 "2006-08-10T05:52:43Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#):
>
> I know you probably won’t believe this but my ex’s wife was having problems with her boyfriend and she buried an axe in his face while he slept. He lost his eye but lived to toss her out a 3rd floor window. So no, it’s not always fatal.
I want to party with you, Cowboy!
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2006, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/12 "2006-08-10T09:18:21Z")
> [@Blake](#):
>
> On a side note there is a moderately famous x-ray, taken in New Guinea, of a man with a cane knife right through his head, entering just above the nose and exiting the back of the head. The man lived with only minor brain damage because the knife neatly slipped between the hemispheres of his brain, pushing them apart and doing relatively little damage.
I’m reminded of a news story years ago, complete with X-ray, of a man whose doctor’s described him as the luckiest man in the world. An accident with a nail gun imbedded a nail next to his eye, driven flush to his flesh. Results : a minor injury. It missed the eye, the optic nerves, the brain and everything else that wouldn’t heal easily or at all; a millimeter or less to either side or deeper and he would have suffered permanent damage. Seeing the X ray of this long nail stuck right through his head was quite impressive.
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### Author:  [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2006, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/13 "2006-08-10T09:29:08Z")
The father of a friend of mine survived an axe in the head from a rival football fan when the two firms clashed. It was most likely ‘only’ a handaxe rather than some double-blade monster.
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### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2006, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/14 "2006-08-10T10:51:27Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#):
>
> I know you probably won’t believe this but my ex’s wife was having problems with her boyfriend and she buried an axe in his face while he slept. He lost his eye but lived to toss her out a 3rd floor window. So no, it’s not always fatal.
Did your ex divorce her after that happened? Or was he afraid to? 😉
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2006, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/15 "2006-08-10T12:17:10Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#):
>
> Did your ex divorce her after that happened? Or was he afraid to? 😉
Well, now I may have gotten the timeline wrong. She was seeing this guy while they were married, but in hindsight I don’t think the axe incident happened until after my ex died. She called me (collect) from jail denying the whole thing. There were other chilling details involving teen-aged boys and attempts to inject air into the guy’s veins. She beat the charge of attempted murder and hung out with the guy for quite a while afterward (even after being tossed out the window, as I recall). She lost custody of my son’s brother and then wandered aimlessly for years. She remarried and was arrested for running the new husband over with her pickup truck. Somehow she beat that one as well and is now on the wagon and pregnant (her children will be 22 years apart). Go figure.
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### Author:  [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2006, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/16 "2006-08-10T12:28:10Z")
I feel like I lead such a sheltered life. No one I know has ever been attacked by an axe or thrown from a window. Sigh.
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### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2006, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/17 "2006-08-10T20:59:35Z")
People who get killed from axe blows probably don’t seek medical treatment. Don’t try this at home, kids. Just in case you get attacked while on vacation, the following web page allows you to say “There’s an axe in my head” in 112 languages.
[http://www.yamara.com/axe/index.html](http://www.yamara.com/axe/index.html)
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### Author:  [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/18 "2006-08-10T22:24:31Z")
Of course, that’s only useful if the ax misses Broca’s area. If you take a whack there, you’ll be a little tongue-tied, to say the least.
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### Author:  [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/19 "2006-08-10T23:05:12Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#):
>
> Well, now I may have gotten the timeline wrong. She was seeing this guy while they were married, but in hindsight I don’t think the axe incident happened until after my ex died. She called me (collect) from jail denying the whole thing. There were other chilling details involving teen-aged boys and attempts to inject air into the guy’s veins. She beat the charge of attempted murder and hung out with the guy for quite a while afterward (even after being tossed out the window, as I recall). She lost custody of my son’s brother and then wandered aimlessly for years. She remarried and was arrested for running the new husband over with her pickup truck. Somehow she beat that one as well and is now on the wagon and pregnant (her children will be 22 years apart). Go figure.
I knew a guy who was cheating on his wife and she shot him in the stomach as he slept. They lived happily ever after, and that was 25 years ago. I asked him, “WTF?” He said, “I didn’t know she still loved me.” Takes all kinds, and it’d be a funny world if we were all the same.
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### Author:  [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-an-axe-blow-to-the-head-face/368060/20 "2006-08-10T23:42:20Z")
> [@Bill Door](#):
>
> I knew a guy who was cheating on his wife and she shot him in the stomach as he slept. They lived happily ever after, and that was 25 years ago. I asked him, “WTF?” He said, “I didn’t know she still loved me.” Takes all kinds, and it’d be a funny world if we were all the same.
I hope the folks who wrote the movie _I Love You To Death_ pay your friend royalties!
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