I have a biology question...?

Question

Why does breaking the neck (as in hanging) kill a person, whereas breaking the back does not (but usually causes paralysis)? Isn't it just another part of the same spine? If hanging someone kills them, then why wasn't Christopher Reeve instantly killed in his accident, due to the damage done at the C1 joint? Do people who are hung really just choke to death?

Answer 1

Breaking your neck doesn't necessarily kill you.

Hanging a person either suffocates them (crushes the trachea/airway so the person can't breathe, which leads to death by anoxia) or severs the spine (broken vertebrae cut spinal cord) or it crushes everything so badly that the brain can't communicate with the body.

But people break their necks and survive on a regular basis. It doesn't necessarily even paralyze them, though they usually have to be in traction or have one of those halo things to keep their neck stabilized while the vertebra/e heal up.

The issue with paralysis is that depending on where you damage the spine, it paralyzes/damages nerve impulses to a certain part of the body.

Christopher Reeve had a spinal injury that pretty much paralyzed him completely. Based on how far down the spine the injury occurs, you could get paralysis from the chin down with no breathing, paralysis from the shoulders down (with breathing), some use of the arms/chest muscles, some use of the torso, even some use of the legs if it's pretty far down the spine.

But again, breaking the back doesn't necessarily cause paralysis. "Breaking" the back/neck means breaking vertebrae. That may or may not cause a spinal injury. The SPINE is the thing that causes paralysis or not if it gets damaged. The bones merely protect the spine and keep it in the right place, but if the spinal cord is OK, the bones can sustain some injury--that's why they're there, to protect the spine.

As far as hanging goes, somebody finally figured out a formula for hanging so that the hanged person's neck was broken from the drop, not from suffocation. Before that, the person was lucky to die from a snapped neck--they usually suffocated to death because nobody had figured out how to ensure a quick, relatively "clean" kill.

The drop is the important thing. Otherwise, the person is just hauled up on a rope by the neck and the rope is pulled up and up until it finally squeezes the life out of the person by suffocation.

But even when it's done, um, "well", hanging is still a cruel form of execution because the brain doesn't die immediately and it's probably pretty painful.

Answer 2

The nerves for breathing hail off the cervical spine, the neck. One can live with mere paralysis caused by damage to the spinal cord in the thoracic and lumbar spine. But, one cannot live with paralysis of breathing, unless placed on a respirator. Research is currently looking at the tranquilizer "buspirone" to reduce the morbidity and mortality of cervical injury related respiratory failure.

http://universe-review.ca/I10-13-nerves.jpg

Answer 3

The higher up the spine, the worse the damage. If you break your spine, lower on your back, the nerves from the break away from the brain are cut off. The nerves closer to the brain are still intact. If you break your neck, more nerves are cut off. Nerves from the break down, are usually no longer usable so more body parts are no longer usable. This is the best I can explain it.

Answer 4

Yes, people who are hung basically choke to death.