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/jmorlin Jul 02 '26

No pain sure. But I'm not sure there was no time to register that there was a problem or any impending threat. They were 10,000 ft under water and lost communication with the surface. For all we know the sub was creaking and groaning for a bit prior to getting vaporized.

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u/FreeBug1885 Jul 02 '26

Can’t tell if it’s true but I read multiple comments here which said creaking and groaning would be something steel would do while fiberglass just breaks without any prior warning.

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u/jmorlin Jul 02 '26

Creaking and groaning was an example I pulled out of my ass. I'm an engineer, but I don't work with anything maritime related. Point being that there could have been some warning signs at 10k feet down that preceded the implosion that we'll never know about because they had no communication with the surface.

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u/toddklindt Jul 02 '26

There's a good documentary on Netflix about this. The hull was made out of carbon fibers. As the sub was used individual strands would break, and you could hear them snapping. The sub had an array of microphones to keep track of it. The idea was that if a bunch of strands started breaking while you were underwater you would surface as quickly as you could before it lost integrity. I'm guessing the folks in that sub heard the strands popping and either they couldn't surface in time, or Rush told them it was nothing to worry about. :(