>> |
Anonymous
>>16923 Maybe, but not necessarily when the window of impact is literally thousands of a second. Even if your fist hit at the right time, the time it takes for the chest to compress might be too long.
Commotio cordis, also known as cardiac concussion. This is a syndrome in which a nonpenetrating impact to the chest causes heart failure but little or no structural damage. The classic victim is a kid or young adult who takes a baseball, hockey puck, or other hard object in the chest, but a 44-year-old teacher died when she caught an elbow while breaking up a fight at school. About half the time the victim collapses immediately, and in the balance of cases within a minute or two. Death is thought to result from ventricular fibrillation, a state in which the lower heart chambers start fluttering and stop pumping blood. One study of 128 cases found that 84 percent of the victims died, and nearly all the survivors received prompt defibrillation. Relatively little force is required for the killing blow--one researcher estimates that the blunt instrument need be moving at only 30 mph. Don't think this is something you'll be able to pull on the next ninja who leaps from the shadows, though. Animal experiments suggest that youd have to strike within a 15-20 millisecond window in the heartbeat cycle to have a reasonably good chance of taking down your attacker.
--I doubt the elbow was going 30mph, as thats fast for a punch. Either way - rare and you'd never be able to do it on purpose, as no one is so finely attuned that they could sense another persons heartbeat and strike within the window.
|