Tae 9 - RE: Which way would you like to be executed?

Mike Weber writes: "Let's ask our resident paramedic, Tae Brandebois (I'm bad with names so I hope I didnt mess it up too much), who posted something about his first experience with a man who had hung himself."

Tae writes: 'Brandebois'? This looks like a _FRENCH_ surname. Mike, I hope that you don't think I'm _FRENCH_. 'Twould be too much for me to take.

Charles Tenney wrote: "Nah, the best part is that when a man is hanged properly, he ends up (heh) sporting a woody. Hence the term, "well hung."

Tae writes:

You know, I'm not sure that's true. If I remember correctly, to goal in hanging is to place pressure against the cricothyroid membrane (Adam's apple), to occlude or crush the trachea, causing asphyxiation, and after a little dance, death. If a person were to 'sport wood' during a hanging, that might be an indication that the hanged man fell with too much force, causing the cervical spinal column to snap, in turn causing spinal cord damage. Spinal cord damage at the cervical level would cause an erection, otherwise known as 'priapism.' Damage to the third, fourth, and fifth cervical vertebrae, with concommitant injury to the underlying spinal cord, would cause the diaphragm to stop working. This also would kill a person by the mere fact that without the diaphragm to create a negative pressure in the chest, no air would go in. So, on many levels, I'm not sure that 'sporting a chub' would be a sign of a lively, drawn-out hanging.

If memory serves - I read once that the guys that did the actual hangings had to practice a fair number of times before getting 'the hang of it.'

Sorry.

Anyway, if they didn't drop the man from a high enough height, the man may fall to the ground, and be able to free himself. Also, if the man did not fall with enough force to crush his larynx, he may struggle enough that he could free himself - and by law, go free.

On the other hand, a fall with too much force would rip the head right off, with the body to continue falling down.

In a previous article, Wintermute says: "Rumor has it they blow a fat wad of love-juice at the moment of death. Is there any truth to this? Is there a good medical explanation?"

Tae writes:

Nope. At least not to my limited experience with auto-asphixiation. Several years ago, in the city if Everett, MA, there were _five_ deaths by hanging within a year's time. All of the victims were of high school age, and the first two deaths were ruled 'accidental.' This was because the first two kids were trying to masturbate while asphixiating themselves. I responded to one of the calls that year.

Upon arrival, my partner and I walked up a flight of stairs to a teenager's room. A male of about 13 - 15 years old, was hanging from the ceiling. He had been dead for at least a couple of hours. The physical signs? Incontinence of the bladder, a light-blue tinge to his extremities - positive Smurf-sign, both orbits of his eyes were bulging forward, his tongue was out - and quite blue. What was interesting to note was the distension of some of the large veins on his forehead, and the petechiae over his face. Petechiae are small reddish-spots that occur when capillaries burst under the skin - usually due to a increase in pressure.

Several things of note:

There was a large hook that was screwed into the ceiling - the kind used to hang potted plants and the like. This was used to hang the rope.

The knot tied by this kid was a slip-knot of some sort. A little later, when the ME came to get him, the knot came undone with a little tug.

This is the big one: his pants were down to his ankles, and so were his briefs. I don't remember seeing any 'dew on the lily.'

Shortly after we got there, his mother came running up the stairs. She'd been out shopping, and had just heard of it. She pushed us out of the way, and when she saw the kid's body - with the pants and briefs down to his ankles, the first thing she did was pull the pants back up, and
zipper them. She then turned to us and said:

"You know, he was under a lot of pressure ..."

The kid's death was listed as a 'suicide.'

Mothers.

- Tae

(Originally posted on Mon, 11 Jul 1994)