# Fatal Blows to the brain (which parts are less likely to kill)



## wainscottbl (Feb 22, 2015)

Say someone is shot or in a cart wreck. Where in the brain would a blow more likely kill than other parts? Medical nerds come to my aid!


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## Deafmute (Feb 22, 2015)

Brain stem is what runs the bodies vital function. damage there is what kills you. the midbrain handles most hormone control lose that and you wont live long. the forebrain is primarily thought and what we consider the where you personality comes from. All that said its a delicate blood supply and any damage will usually cause bleeding that would swell the brain and cause damage everywhere else. But there have been cases of people taking a railroad spike the forehead and being totally fine. Different personality but otherwise fine.


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## wainscottbl (Feb 22, 2015)

So say the frontal lobe got hit in one subject and the temporal lobe on one side in the other. Which would be more likely to kill the person? In other words a frontal below or one from the side? My guess is frontal but I want to make sure.


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## Deafmute (Feb 22, 2015)

frontal is more likely to cause memory loss, swelling or actual damage could cause personality changes and loss of inhibition. Temporal lobe is still the cerebrum so damage to it would cause deficits in muscle movement hearing language comprehension not so much fatal. But like I said before any damange to the brain can be fatal due to the blood swelling or resulting necrosis. between frontal and temporal blows there neither is more likely to be fatal it would depend on how hard and how much vascular damage resulted.


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## Blade (Feb 22, 2015)

Deafmute said:


> frontal is more likely to cause memory loss, swelling or actual damage could cause personality changes and loss of inhibition. Temporal lobe is still the cerebrum so damage to it would cause deficits in muscle movement hearing language comprehension not so much fatal. But like I said before any damange to the brain can be fatal due to the blood swelling or resulting necrosis. between frontal and temporal blows there neither is more likely to be fatal it would depend on how hard and how much vascular damage resulted.



I would agree with this. The lower brain and neck are actually more vulnerable to a death blow both via vital functions controlled and blood supply but the area is also less vulnerable to attack. Notice that when encountering an attack from the front.you can lower your chin onto the neck area for protection by the upper skull.


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## Guy Faukes (Feb 22, 2015)

I think you're more likely to cause damage to the frontal lobe since the skull around the eye sockets tends to be rough and jagged, cutting arteries and veins, but overall, you have a lot of wiggle room. Even mild injuries that leave a person conscious and lucid can lead to swelling and death within two days.


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## wainscottbl (Feb 23, 2015)

Guy Faukes said:


> I think you're more likely to cause damage to the frontal lobe since the skull around the eye sockets tends to be rough and jagged, cutting arteries and veins, but overall, you have a lot of wiggle room. Even mild injuries that leave a person conscious and lucid can lead to swelling and death within two days.



Yeah, we had a family friend who shot himself in the head. He walked around his house for two days, eating and everything. My dad came in to see him and found him. Called 911 and the works. They put my dad in the police car and my uncle called a lawyer. My dad was not arrested and it was immediately rule attempted suicide. But he had brain damage. He started having blackouts and the one side of his face looked like he'd had a stroke. Sadly he had one of his blackouts fishing a couple years later and drowned, may his memory be eternal and God grant him eternal rest. But yeah, you can survive that sort of thing. 

Another family friend shot herself in the head and lived. There is some belief even her husband may have tried to kill her. From what I have known before this she was a hottie. Now she is fat, rather unattractive and a bit nuts. The gunshot also made her rather blind, and she clearly has psychological problems, both from the shot and the depression that comes with the hindered lifestyle. It is clearly neuropsychological because there is something in her brain, due to the injury, here her brain cannot process normal social behavior and so forth, rather like an person with autism, though she is still very intelligent. She throws fits sometimes. Like my dad took her to the store to get groceries and went through town rather than taking the bypass because she wanted a soft drink, so he was going to stop at McDonalds. She went nuts. Started yelling, "You're going the wrong way! You're going the wrong way!" So my dad had to turn around and go the other way. Then he stopped at the gas station to get the drink, and she through a fit there in the parking lot because it took a few minutes. "Take me home! Take me home!" So he take her all the way back home which was like 10-15 miles, drop her off, and go get her groceries. 

So brain damage can sometimes be fatal, and not, and when it is not, the neurological effects include everything from autistic like conditions to seizures.


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## wainscottbl (Feb 23, 2015)

Also, does this sound accurate. This is from my story


“There’s injury to her right temporal lobe where the head banged against the window,” I said.
“Yes, of course,” Dr. Smith said. “But that was not fatal.”
“Could have been, at least secondary,” I proposed.
“Yeah, well what do you know, Mr. Webb?”
“That the area of the brain injured is not specifically a factor in the blow being fatal. The real matter is whether the brainstem is injured.”
“Very good,” Dr. Smith said sarcastically. “You know what everyone here knows about the brain! But the damage to the brain stem, which you so clearly pointed was fatal, was from the front. See here?” He pointed this all out with all the condescending arrogance possible


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## Guy Faukes (Feb 23, 2015)

Brain injuries have tragic results, leaving a person less than whole. These individuals offer insight into the workings of the mind, but it personally leaves me unable to believe in a spirit to see someone lose specific facilities with each blow. 

It was good until "“That the area of the brain injured is not specifically a factor in the blow being fatal" because any blow to any region of the head can be fatal. Like, if you sustain enough damage to any lobe, you're going to get bleeding. When exposed to blood, the brain like to undergo liquefactive necrosis where everything just turns to goo. Also, if swelling results, one can die of cerebral pressure. 

I'd go more along the lines that the brain is a tricky organ, enduring things one would not expect at times (like a gunshot) while succumbing to far less substantive injuries at others.


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## Blade (Feb 23, 2015)

wainscottbl said:


> So brain damage can sometimes be fatal, and not, and when it is not, the neurological effects include everything from autistic like conditions to seizures.



On the brighter side there are recorded instances where the brain has been injured in one area creating a certain level and other parts of the brain have stepped in to try and cover the damage. The replacement function was not exactly 'up to speed' but a great improvement over the original injury state.



Guy Faukes said:


> I'd go more along the lines that the brain is a tricky organ, enduring things one would not expect at times (like a gunshot) while succumbing to far less substantive injuries at others.



A consequence of the fact that we do not really know all that much about how the brain really works. As per injury leading to death a serious blow producing profuse bleeding would be the safest bet.:blue:


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## Crowley K. Jarvis (Feb 23, 2015)

Oh I was going to say that..haha. Yes, parts of the brain are even capable of repurposing themselves. Not as good as the original but still amazing.

And yes, due to the specific ways it functions, even gunshot victims have lived.

A man who suffered from a brain tumor once attempted to shoot himself. He shot the tumor out and lived in an improved condition. Don't try that at home but you get the point.

Edit: If it wasn't clear that was a suicide attempt, not something intentional on his part.


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## Deafmute (Feb 23, 2015)

wainscottbl said:


> Also, does this sound accurate. This is from my story
> 
> 
> “There’s injury to her right temporal lobe where the head banged against the window,” I said.
> ...



To be honest this dialogue is really vague, I feel like as a reader I wouldn't know what was going on much less if it was medically accurate. Give us a more general picture of what your trying to accomplish in this scene and we will see if we can't help you deliver it better.


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## wainscottbl (Feb 23, 2015)

Deafmute said:


> To be honest this dialogue is really vague, I feel like as a reader I wouldn't know what was going on much less if it was medically accurate. Give us a more general picture of what your trying to accomplish in this scene and we will see if we can't help you deliver it better.



The narrator is giving a general idea of his studies over a period of time. Let me give a wider picture


Anatomy was another class we had to take of course. I found it tedious, one because I had already studied it all, and two because there was nothing hands on or exciting about it, like seeing the bodies and learning the art of cutting people open to learn how they died.  We also saw a woman murdered by arsenic and how the poison slowly wore her down, and another victim, killed in a hit and run.

That was the morning Dr. Smith was not supposed to be there. We saw her black lungs just for the hell of it—she was a smoker—and of course where the fatal blow was on her body. It was the frontal lobe of the head.

She had also had a tumor it was discovered, deep in the brain, between the right temporal lobe, parietal lobe, and sensory cortex. She had been mistakenly diagnosed with epilepsy, the tumor somehow being overlooked. It was not very large. She had complained of confusion, lapses in short term memory, and seeing multicolored lights, all common in partial seizures. Of course she was not supposed to be driving.

“Could not the fact that she was not supposed to be driving because of the seizure episodes, or what was thought to be seizures, have been a factor in the crash?” Annie asked.

“Very good,” her father said. “It is possible, though not likely any factor if it was a factor. She likely would not have seen the car coming from the passenger side in time to react. No one would likely have.”


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