1. Our hero, a martial arts expert, is in a heated battle with a baddie. Striking the villain on the bridge of the nose, he “kills him instantly” by a “driving splinters of bone into his brain.”
I had my doubts about this one the first time I read it. However, I consulted a real martial arts expert and asked if this was, in fact, possible. His answer was no – and yes. And for the reasons I always that it was possible.
You can kill someone by sending bone splinters into their brain, but you can’t “kill them instantly.” Those parts of the brain that control our autonomic reflexes—the ones that control our breathing and heartbeat—are located in the back of the skull. What’s in the front, right behind the nose, is the cerebellum. Bone splinters would cause internal bleeding, which would eventually kill the victim—the much talked-about cerebral hemorrhage—but it would take time. How much time would depend on the level of damage and bleeding, but several minutes are required for severe damage and it can take days if the damage is small.
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