2006-09-14 05:07:47 · 18 answers · asked by 10Ksmasher 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Medicine
A spinal cord is the nervous connection from your brain to your organs. Severing it, which often happens when someone breaks their neck, removes the connection, thus rendering the vital organs non functional.
2006-09-14 05:11:08 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
They die not just because of the breaking of the neck but the consequences of the damages resulted on the vital parts within the neck are the reasons of dying. The damages on spinal cord containing the spinal nerves, the effects on blood vessels and airway are among the factors which are substantial reasons for someone with broken neck to die.
2006-09-14 15:54:42 · answer #2 · answered by ♥ lani s 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When people fall and break their necks or are killed in an accident, the trachea in the throat is crushed. Plus, the spinal cord is snapped like a twig, thus not only collapsing the trachea, but also separating the spinal nerves from the brain and the heart. You would be quite surprised of what the spinal cord involves.
2006-09-14 18:48:02 · answer #3 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They don't always die but if the injury is high up enough the phrenic nerve in the spinal cord can be severed or damaged. The phrenic nerve controls the diaphragm and without it a person is unable to breathe.
2006-09-14 12:13:23 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Depending on where the neck injury occurs... Higher up you can snap the medulla oblongata (brain stem).. the medulla was on the first parts of the brain to develop and therefore preforms some of out most primal functions like respiratory control... and heart rate... so it obviously very important... My neuro. mechanisms professor made mention that the snapping of the medulla was sadly what Dale Earnhardt Sr. passed from resulting in the car crash... how true that is... i don't know... but she always knowledgeable...
2006-09-14 21:27:36 · answer #5 · answered by cheertee1126 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well I'm sure that they would have difficulty breathing, due either to broken windpipe or blood flowing into the air passages, and getting blood to flow to the brain, which doubly reduces the amount of oxygen that the brain can receive.
So the brain will die, and the person will too.
2006-09-14 12:18:38 · answer #6 · answered by lkraie 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
actually they might not die depending on how far up the neck is broken. they die if the break is high enough because the brain is unable to send signals to the heart, lungs and other organs and they stop functioning.
2006-09-14 12:10:21 · answer #7 · answered by dan 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I went to school with a kid who broke his neck in football, but survived. It all depends on the extent of spinal cord injury. (He even recovered to the point where he walks just fine.)
2006-09-14 12:37:44 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
in the back of neck, there is one of the imp. centres situated, the respiratory centre.if the centre is compressed by an object or any hit,it leads to stoppage of breathing and may prove fatal if not treated on time
2006-09-14 12:17:54 · answer #9 · answered by sheet 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This does not always happen. I have seen one man with C1 & C2 fractures walk into the emergency room. (Those are the top two vertebrae) Needless to add, he was holding his head up with both hands. He survived with no neuro defects at all.
But I had to go home and change my underwear.
2006-09-14 12:17:50 · answer #10 · answered by GreenHornet 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋