# What would it feel like to have one's throat slit? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 7, 2006, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735 "2006-06-07T14:06:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/21 "2006-06-08T12:18:11Z")
[QUOTE=picunurse] If your assailant were truly skilled, he/she would go for your carotid artery. Your jugular is a vein, so exsanguination would take longer. [/QUOTE] If we were talking about any extremity except the head, you’d be correct. But when the jugular vein is cut, much of the blood in the head is immediately dumped due to gravity. (I’ve seen it happen). The intracranial blood pressure almost immediately drops below what’s needed to sustain consciousness. Unconsciousness and death would occur quicker (and with less blood loss) than by cutting the carotid. If you really want to kill someone by bleeding out, the quickest way to do that is by a cut to the inside of the thigh, slashing both the femoral artery and vein in one stroke. 90 seconds to almost total exsanguination (sometimes called a butcher block injury). ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/22 "2006-06-08T12:28:14Z")
[QUOTE=Bippy the Beardless] A stiletto slipped between the second and third cervical vertebrae severing the spinal cord is far less messy and much more satisfying. [/QUOTE] That’s how the Borg suggest killing a human. Without the stiletto of course. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/23 "2006-06-08T12:50:24Z")
[QUOTE=picunurse] If your assailant were truly skilled, he/she would go for your carotid artery. Your jugular is a vein, so exsanguination would take longer. You have two carotid arteries, but four jugular veins. The veins are smaller than their companion arteries. A severed carotid, without immediate intervention, would bring you to unconsciousness with in 1-3 minutes or less, death would follow shortly. A severed jugular would take longer, maybe as much as 6-8 minutes, maybe more. A severed vessel bleeds slightly more slowly than a partly interupted vessel. A severed vessel will snap back into the surrounding muscle, which puts some pressure on it, slowing the flow, where an interrupted one will be held open, allowing free flow. The other consideration is bilateral vs unilateral injury. With unilateral injury, you might be able to hold the wound closed until help arrives, because your brain wouldn’t be completely deprived of oxygen, since it would still have blood supply from the uninjured side. That said, rapid blood loss of more that a liter will cause unconsciousness. You would lose muscle control in the muscles damaged. I doubt you’d have time to look around much, though. Also, there are other structures in the neck that might be damaged making survival impossible. The pain you might feel would only be relevant, if you survived for more that a few minutes, your body releases endorphins during extreme stress, that delay pain. [/QUOTE] Thanks, O.J. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/24 "2006-06-08T13:57:46Z")
[QUOTE=NoClueBoy] And those little fuckers fight back, too. Blood & feathers everywhere. Next time I’ll kill it first. [/QUOTE] Thank you. I needed that laugh. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/25 "2006-06-09T22:44:58Z")
[QUOTE=picunurse] Not exactly. An artery pushes blood, it doesn’t suck. [/QUOTE] No suction needed. Grab a garden hose, tie it to the top of a tree and cut it in the middle. While the bottom half spouts all over, the top half drains and fills with air. If you manage to splice it, the air will still be in the system. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/26 "2006-06-10T00:04:01Z")
How would it feel? I imagine the blade would draw out like time… ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2006, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/27 "2006-06-10T00:08:30Z")
Can we all…hug or something…now? ---
**Author:** ![J.Z.Knuckles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecccb3/32.png) [@J.Z.Knuckles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J.Z.Knuckles)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/28 "2006-06-10T01:33:11Z")
[QUOTE=tiny ham] Can we all…hug or something…now? [/QUOTE] You know, I’m not so sure it’s wise to allow myself within arm’s reach of these people. Thanks for the info, chaps! Most enlightening. ---
**Author:** ![air62399](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@air62399](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/air62399)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/29 "2015-02-06T05:02:07Z")
My two cent’s worth. It can take a long long time. Fifteen years ago or so, when the internet was in it’s infancy for everyone, I recall stumbling upon a clip someone had uploaded to a music sharing site which shocked me and remains with me, despite the intervening years and seeing the horrific but more widely known mexican / central american cartel or fundamentalist beheadings etc. In said clip, a few afghans who have a captured russian conscript pinned to the rocky ground with a number of men holding him down, show one of the group press a knife through the russian solider’s throat, (through or more likely just behind the windpipe), and in a sawing motion cut forward out until the blade cuts through all the tissue. When the knife emerged clear, there was profuse bleeding, with a lot spilling out on the ground, but a lot, by the sound of it, clearly running down into the victim’s lungs. It was so shocking, because it was done so matter of fact and with complete absence of empathy. The abiding impression was that they simply didn’t see him as human, and this was reflected in the whole scene. Visually pretty shocking / scarring and I will never completely forget having seen the sight of the poor victim with a mujahadin foot on his head, pinning it in position for this treatment. From what I could make out, it was, a bit like more recent similar executions in the region, clearly not simply done with despatching the enemy, but rather as a device intended to terrify the russian army at the time, with the aim of pushing them out. Two points stand out for me remembering that clip, 1) The sadism and inhumanity of the people carrying out the murder, and 2) These guys, the elders of the taliban etc of today, were backed, trained and had embedded within them a constant stream of operatives from western special forces, fighting who were seen to be the enemy at the time, the russians/soviets. Which begs the question, wtf was the impression this and other heinous barbaric methods the afghan insurgents used, in the minds of the u.s. and u.k. soldiers, at that time, fighting alongside the afghans? ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/30 "2015-02-06T10:44:45Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Having slit the throats of a few animals let me say that the idea of a person having minutes of fight left in them after the carotid is severed is sheer fantasy. At best an animals with a severed carotid has 10 seconds of CONSCIOUSNESS, and that is spent lying on the ground kicking, not struggling or fighting. No doubt a severed carotid will result in quick death, but the fantasy seems to be in the idea of getting there while slitting the throat of an unwilling human being. There is plenty of material out there to assess how cutting a human throat goes down in real life. “A minute or two of fight left” matches many cases much more accurately than “10 seconds of unconscious kicking in the ground”, even when the neck is penetrated and then sawed through with a big-ass knife. Adrenaline does wonders, it seems. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/31 "2015-02-06T11:33:31Z")
> [@vetbridge](#): > > That same stilleto can (with a skilled assassins) can be inserted into the foramen magnum and the target can be pithed. Well, I’d be \*extwemely \*annoyed and no mithtake. (I know it’s an eight-year-old post, but just look at that set-up) ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/32 "2015-02-06T13:22:59Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > No doubt a severed carotid will result in quick death, but the fantasy seems to be in the idea of getting there while slitting the throat of an unwilling human being. There is plenty of material out there to assess how cutting a human throat goes down in real life. “A minute or two of fight left” matches many cases much more accurately than “10 seconds of unconscious kicking in the ground”, even when the neck is penetrated and then sawed through with a big-ass knife. Adrenaline does wonders, it seems. Risking going O/T but there have also been studies which suggest a decapitated head has seconds of consciousness in it. An example from a book on Anne Boleyn particularly struck me. The face of decapitated victim in a car crash briefly showed signs of shock, sadness then grief before losing consciousness. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/33 "2015-02-06T16:25:37Z")
zombie or no that days newspaper was placed in the guillotine basket as a last courtesy. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/34 "2015-02-06T16:50:34Z")
Hard to say. ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/35 "2015-02-07T02:18:37Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > Risking going O/T but there have also been studies which suggest a decapitated head has seconds of consciousness in it. An example from a book on Anne Boleyn particularly struck me. The face of decapitated victim in a car crash briefly showed signs of shock, sadness then grief before losing consciousness. [The Master speaks.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/200/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious) ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2015, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/36 "2015-02-07T10:12:39Z")
A grunt was all reply he got; he shaved the bushman’s chin, Then made the water boiling hot and dipped the razor in. He raised his hand, his brow grew black, he paused awhile to gloat, Then slashed the red-hot razor-back across his victim’s throat; Upon the newly shaven skin it made a livid mark – No doubt it fairly took him in – the man from Ironbark. He fetched a wild up-country yell might wake the dead to hear, And though his throat, he knew full well, was cut from ear to ear, He struggled gamely to his feet, and faced the murd’rous foe: `You’ve done for me! you dog, I’m beat! one hit before I go! I only wish I had a knife, you blessed murdering shark! But you’ll remember all your life, the man from Ironbark.’ [The Man from Ironbark (Banjo Paterson)](http://www.wallisandmatilda.com.au/man-from-ironbark.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/37 "2015-02-08T00:30:39Z")
Just last week I had a squamous cell skin cancer removed from the right side of my neck—that is, the cancer was located on the right hand side of my neck; it wasn’t removed from the wrong side. The surgeon told me he would have to be extremely careful to avoid cutting my jugular vein; I asked him to please avoid that. Then he told me that if the cancer had spread below the surface of the skin he would have to be extremely careful to avoid cutting the carotid artery. Before I could say anything he added that he had once done that very thing. After a pause for effect, he added that it had been a slip of the knife while he was dissecting a cadaver. While my experience of having my throat cut is limited I can say that the needle used to numb the area was the most uncomfortable part of the process. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/38 "2015-02-08T01:00:28Z")
> [@rsa](#): > > [The Master speaks.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/200/do-decapitated-heads-briefly-remain-conscious) [The Master speaks some more.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1172/does-the-head-remain-briefly-conscious-after-decapitation) This is the column with the story about the head with the expressions of shock, confusion, terror, and grief. ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735/39 "2015-02-08T04:14:23Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > [The Master speaks some more.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1172/does-the-head-remain-briefly-conscious-after-decapitation) This is the column with the story about the head with the expressions of shock, confusion, terror, and grief. Thanks, that’s the one I intended. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-it-feel-like-to-have-ones-throat-slit/359735.md?page=1)