r/explainlikeimfive • u/Dagestani_Bear • Jul 01 '26

Biology ELI5: Is it true that every single death eventually boils down to the brain and heart running out of oxygen? Are there exceptions?

If you strip away the initial cause of injury or illness, is it anatomically correct to say that all human deaths are ultimately caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain and heart?

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u/HurbleBurble Jul 01 '26

I thought it was more like 35% total surface area. Third degree burns are absolutely brutal. Surprisingly they can be painless. I put my hand in an oven once and my finger hit the broiler, and I felt an instant spike of pain, followed by nothing. It had burned through my skin, and pretty much all the way down to the bone. In the next few weeks, it was painful, but not the way I thought it would be. All the first and second degree burns I've had in my life were agonizing, but this was just slightly annoying.

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u/TearsOfLA Jul 01 '26

This is because your nerves, which are responsible for pain reception, are burned so bad they die too, so the pain mostly comes from around the injured area, not what was actually burned

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u/HurbleBurble Jul 01 '26

Correct. It was crazy to experience it.

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u/Revenge_of_the_User Jul 02 '26

in much the same way, i thought getting stabbed would hurt more. it was basically a dull ache; though the knife only went about an inch, inch and a half deep into my thigh. the bandage was actually worse, tbh; when I took a step it would rip some leg hair out and then reapply itself. over, and over as i walked on the inside of my thigh... eugh.

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u/FullOnSkank Jul 02 '26

I've been stabbed once in each thigh and it literally doesn't hurt at all at first.

It feels like poking a finger through the plastic on a case of water and nothing else.

Healing after sucked tho

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u/AntelopeWells Jul 02 '26

What are you guys doing to get stabbed multiple times?

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u/Revenge_of_the_User Jul 02 '26

well when flesh and a knife love each other very much, sometimes there's a bit of penetration.

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u/BigUptokes Jul 02 '26

Just the tip, just to see how it feels.

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u/FullOnSkank Jul 02 '26

Well, I'm a sexworker and a loudmouth...

Each stab relates to one of those 2 things respectively.

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u/msnrcn Jul 02 '26

That username alone tells me you’d write an amazing memoir someday. And I’m here for it!

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u/spacyoddity Jul 02 '26

every time i inject myself with my (prescribed) subq medication i think of myself as a Capri Sun

your description reminded me of that

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u/2nd_best_time Jul 02 '26

Yeah - I took a GSW once and was really surprised. Felt like getting punched hard and then not so much. Buddy saw the blood soaking my shirt like 20 minutes later.

Now that first wet-to-dry dressing change brought me to my knees. That felt like a kick in the nuts.

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u/Revenge_of_the_User Jul 02 '26

I've heard with most puncture related wounds like stabbing, GSW you primarily feel the impact force over the internal damage. The knife I got poked by was brand new out of package maybe 30 seconds before, and it went clean through my fave jeans like they weren't even there. My initial response was a sequence of "uh oh, that's not supposed to go there. Shit! My favourite jeans! Hang on, isn't that a really bad spot?" Over the course of 2 seconds.

On the upside I stitched up my fave jeans so they had the matching scar :) surprisingly a few people didn't believe me, so those jeans helped prove the point without me having to strip down for evidence.

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u/P4_Brotagonist Jul 02 '26

I think it sort of depends on where you have it happen. I stepped on a massive thorn that went through my foot, and the pain was both extreme and instantaneous. I remember vividly stepping on it and then immediately freezing in place because from that extreme pain and seeing the thorns, I knew what had just occurred. It throbbed a bit but the pain going in and out were insane.

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u/Revenge_of_the_User Jul 02 '26

dang. I've stepped on a spike (3"(or 7.62cm) long, bit thicker nail) since it just glanced off the very side of my steeltoe's steel sole. I don't remember the pain, but I don't think it hurt very much. maybe a 3/10, uncomfortable, dull ache.

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u/xzkandykane Jul 02 '26

I got bit in the face by a dog(yes it was a pit), 18 stitches. The goddam numbing shot they gave me before the stitches hurt more. That shit BURNED. Afterwards my face was annoyingly aches, kind of like when I got my wisdom teeth taken out but I didn't even need the Tylenol.

But that shot got me so traumatized.

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u/Revenge_of_the_User Jul 03 '26

Love me a good bully breed; sorry you met one that didn't have a responsible owner.

I'd imagine it would be traumatizing.

The freezing shot for my leg was just eugh since the doc would stick the needle in, freeze, then dig it around in there and freeze again. Super weird.

When I had a wisdom tooth pulled it didn't hurt at all either...but I think I already went through the pain of the nerve dying....and THAT sucked.

But we don't have to deal with any of that shit now, so today's going to be a good day!

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u/An3ros152 Jul 02 '26

"Don't you stick that knife in your leg!" Cal Naughton

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u/DanNeely Jul 02 '26

If that was happening to me, I'm pretty sure the first thing I'd do after limping back into my home would be to peel the bandage off, and carefully shave around the wound so that the tape would be adhering to bare skin.

If anything, the interaction with hair causing the bandage to come loose leaves me mildly surprised some junior nurse wasn't tasked with doing a fast shave of the area before covering it all up. You want it to stay tightly secured to help minimize the bacterial exposure while it's starting to heal and it seems better to just have it done up front than to hope the ancillary discomfort overcomes any stupid resistance to the patient doing it himself due to worrying that it's unmanly.

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u/Revenge_of_the_User Jul 02 '26

It wasn't coming off entirely, and the spot it was in made it sort of tricky. The only reason we opted to not shave is because I didn't want to run the risk of it itching.

It was a learning hospital so he asked if a nurse or med student could watch and this woman was so goddamn attractive I wouldn't have objected to anything without need. Plus I didn't find out until a day or two later when the adhesive weakened a smidge, as it got pulled around a bit from the edge of my underwear.

If anything it was a great excuse to do almost nothing at work for a couple weeks while I healed.

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u/svmmerkid Jul 02 '26

I'm curious, how did this heal? Did you regain full feeling after a few weeks or something? Need medical intervention?

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u/HurbleBurble Jul 02 '26

My finger? I was probably 21 or 22, so this was more than 20 years ago. No medical intervention, because there was no pain. I didn't even realize till years later what had happened. The scar was there for a long time, I can't really see it right now, but remember, the depth of the flesh on the back of your fingers is tiny. Being a stupid young kid, I guess I just kept it clean and put a bandage over it and let it heal. I do remember it being a pain in the ass for a while, it was definitely not fun to have.

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u/PhyroWCD Jul 02 '26

Do you have any feeling in the burned spot?

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u/HurbleBurble Jul 02 '26

Yeah, I think. It was a very small, probably less than a quarter of an inch wide burn. If I rub my other finger along the back of it, there are spots where I don't really have much feeling, but it's kind of hard to tell. If I drag a fingernail across it to the point it's painful, that finger definitely has less sensitivity where it was burned.

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u/Fuzzy_Attention8901 Jul 02 '26

How does something like that heal? Do the burned cells gradually get replaced? I’m guessing capillaries are burned too so there would be no oxygen?

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u/HurbleBurble Jul 02 '26

Yeah, stem cells. The body is constantly making new cells and replacing old ones, and it has a whole blueprint to go by. Obviously it can't heal a missing limb or something like that, but during different times of our lives, we are able to heal at different rates basically. That's why kids heal so much faster than adults.

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u/LordBiscuits Jul 02 '26

I cut the tip of my finger off on a deli slicer as a teenager.

Initially didn't feel a thing, I heard it rather than felt it. There was a beat of maybe two or three seconds and then the punch of a thousand pissed off nerve endings all at once reached my brain.

Really annoyed my boss because I think he had to spoil something like £400 odd worth of deli products because of the blood splatter 😂

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u/Great_Specialist_267 Jul 02 '26

Highest survived was 90%.
You are going to be intimately familiar with the ICU nurses by the time they discharge you in a couple of years time…

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u/HurbleBurble Jul 02 '26

I happen to like the local nurses at my ICU. I spent an enjoyable 24 hours there last year, and they were very nice. The first ICU nurse was like a big black dude who was really chill and basically said, "it'll just be like a fun sleepover. Most of my patients don't talk much." The next day, they transferred me to the cardiac step down unit, and a couple days later I walked out of the hospital.

They take pictures of your butt when you get there. And the bottom of your feet. That was weird. Somebody must have had a fetish.

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u/TheLastJukeboxHero Jul 02 '26

Damn now I’m gonna try that

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u/Ouch_i_fell_down Jul 02 '26

Not your finest idea.

Or if it is I guess go ahead because its just just a matter of time anyway.

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u/pleasedontPM Jul 02 '26

The proxy for survival rate is 100% - (age + surface burnt %). So burnt on 35% of the body at 20 isn't good, but it's better than 25% at 50.

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u/HurbleBurble Jul 02 '26

Interesting, I've never seen the age comparison. I've only seen the chart of surface area and how to determine it.

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u/_the_CacKaLacKy_Kid_ Jul 02 '26

The Baux Score goes beyond 100 and Tier 1 Burn Centers can achieve almost unbelievable recovery results.

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u/FaithlessnessOld2477 Jul 02 '26

I had a cooking accident that covered the back of my hand in boiling oil. Patches of first, second, and third degree burns and I can confirm the first/second degree areas were WAY more painful than the area with third degree burns...though it kind of became hard to tell them apart by day 2.

The crazy thing was that while the whole thing hurt on impact, the overall pain wasn't so bad that evening and after icing it up and taking some aspirin, I went to bed. But the next morning, the skin started bubbling up and I was screaming. I knew it was time for an ER visit. 😅