Why is it that if you lose more than 40% of your blood you die?

Question

I read that on a fact sheet from my Biology teacher, and it didn't really make sense to me. I thought if you lost more than %50 you die. Maybe I'm missing something really obvious.

Answer 1

I think you're arguing semantics. The point is, you cannot survive without a certain minimum amount of blood.

Answer 2

Because each person is different, that number is different for each of us.

If you have severe cardiac disease, you could die from losing 10% of your blood, if that was enough to decrease the oxygen delivery to your heart and cause it to fail.

Young, healthy people can lose much more, because they have the physiologic reserves to survive extreme conditions.

Survivability also depends on resuscitative efforts. During surgery, people can lose their entire blood volume several times over, but we keep replacing it so they don't die. Slow blood loss is tolerated better than sudden blood loss.

It's not a single number, as every person and situation is different.

Answer 3

I'm not sure about the number specifically, but I can tell you that the most important thing blood does is carry oxygen to the cells of your body. If you lost 40% of your blood, that would mean that 40% of your body wasn't getting any air. That's two legs and an arm, more or less.

Imagine breathing only 40% of the time. That'd do a number on you, wouldn't it!

Answer 4

Because then you no longer have the perfusion of blood throughout your body to carry in the oxygen and to carry away the carbon dioxide, so the cells start to die, also if you lose that much blood your heart beats faster to pump what blood it has thereby straining it and you go into fibrillation or cardiac arrest

Answer 5

You would die because your there would not be enough blood in your system to get oxygen to your vital organs. Eventually they would shut down from oxygen deficiency.

Answer 6

u wouldn't have a certain level of oxygen concentration in your body so your brain would pass out, nd u would die after 4 mins.

Answer 7

maybe cuz there is not enough pressure in the veins for the heart to pump the blood correctly.... think of it like theres not enough psi on your tires and if u go on the freeway ur tires explode...

Answer 8

Because blood transports oxygen to all your organs, and you can't live without oxygen.

Answer 9

There wont be enough left to make your heart continue to pump.