The answer lies in the spirit with which Haughton undertook his studies of hanging in the first place. In his writings, his sympathy for the criminal is apparent, but more importantly, he identified the purpose of capital punishment as being to kill and not to torture a distinction that may ask us to reconsider the death penalty itself.
In effect, the humanitarianism of death by hanging — insofar as there is any — is encapsulated in the simple but deadly act of breaking the neck, technically called a cervical fracture. The first seven vertebrae — vertebrae being the irregular bones that make up the human spine — counting down from the skull are called the cervical vertebrae.
In medical parlance, they are numbered C1 through C7. Until , a long-drop of feet would typically break the C2, C3, C4 or C5 vertebrae, and often tear the head right off. In , the permissible drop energy was revised to 1, joules to prevent this from happening. It happens when the C2 vertebra is broken at two specific points and when it is dislocated into the C3 vertebra enough to damage the spinal cord. There is nothing kind or gentle about a hanging.
It is a process scientifically designed to break the neck and choke a person to death as efficiently as possible. In the recent Iraqi executions, former president Saddam Hussein and two of his accomplices, his half brother and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, were hanged from a gallows.
In such judicial hangings, the victims are typically dropped a distance greater than their height through a trapdoor. At this point, the rope becomes rigid, and the force of the noose should break the victim's neck, causing immediate paralysis and unconsciousness. The procedure causes a classic "hangman's fracture" — a break between the head and the neck, effectively snapping the upper cervical spine. In most cases, the victim dies of asphyxiation. Though nobody really knows how long it takes a person to die from hanging, experts say it is probably anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes.
In judicial hangings, as opposed to suicides, there is significant damage to the spinal cord. The strategy of management should aim to get adequate oxygenation and cerebral perfusion. PEEP positive end expiratory pressure has its definite role in the treatment of pulmonary oedema, but at the same time it also increases intracranial pressure, so one has to weigh its use according to patient's condition.
To ensure adequate cerebral perfusion, immediate steps should be taken to reduce raised ICP by using hyperventilation and diuretics eg frusemide. If use of mannitol is mandatory, it should be used along with frusemide to avoid over expansion of plasma volume. Morbidity is the result of post obstruction effects. After rescue from airway obstruction, reestablishment of patent airway may not provide the proper oxygenation even with the clear chest as occurred in our patient.
Such patient may require aggressive oxygen therapy for adequate oxygenation. Pulmonary oedema is reversible in most of the cases once recognized and treated properly. Although neurological injury determines the outcome, but poor initial condition does not exclude a good recovery. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List Indian J Anaesth v. Indian J Anaesth. Mahendra Kumar 1,4,5 Professor, Dept. Rajani Mandhyan 2,3 Senior Resident, Dept.
Usha Shukla 2,3 Senior Resident, Dept. Ashok Kumar 1,4,5 Professor, Dept. R S Rautela 1,4,5 Professor, Dept. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. India, Email: moc. Accepted May 5. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Summary During suicidal hanging, death takes few minutes to occur.
Introduction Hanging is a common mode of committing suicide with a high incidence among the suicidal cases. Case report A year-old male patient was admitted to intensive care unit in unconscious state with an alleged history of suicidal hanging by neck. Discussion Hanging is a very common mode of suicide particularly in young adults. References 1. Increasing suicide rates in young adults. Brit Med J.
0コメント