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Is it possible to choke to death on an ice-cube?

teacherdee

Sorry if this is in the wrong section, I wasn't sure where to post this.

About a year and a half ago I was drinking rum at my now ex-boyfriends house while watching a movie or something. We had no mixers so I put quite a bit of ice in mine. He made me laugh while I was drinking, and I swallowed a large one, fresh from the freezer. I was lying along the couch at this point, with a blanket over me, and the ends of the blanket snuggly wrapped around my feet, which I tend to do. I tried to get up and motion that I was choking, but the effort of untangling myself used up too much oxygen and I fell unconscious.

My ex-boyfriend tried to perform the Heimlich maneuver on me, which was quite difficult for him because he had only ever watched it on TV, he was quite panicked, and a little bit drunk. He dropped me a couple of times while trying to do this (I know because I had a large bump where my head hit the edge of the table), but after around a minute the ice-cube flew out of me. I couldn't breath properly for a good while and I looked like I had died according to him, but I was alright.

I often tell this story because I used to be terrified of drowning, but I think it would be a lovely way to die after my experience of what it feels like to lose consciousness from axphyxiation. After I tell it sometimes I like to have an argument about whether or not it is possible to choke to death on an ice-cube. I googled it, but there are too many sites aboot that god damned rapper for me to find anything useful.

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bug

teacherdee wrote:

I often tell this story because I used to be terrified of drowning, but I think it would be a lovely way to die after my experience of what it feels like to lose consciousness from axphyxiation. After I tell it sometimes I like to have an argument about whether or not it is possible to choke to death on an ice-cube. I googled it, but there are too many sites aboot that god damned rapper for me to find anything useful.

roffle,

small object caught in throat/ windpipe = choke.
what difference does it make that it's ice?

spinandscribble

i doubt it. the body might increase in temp understress and the icecube would proberly melt fast enough to pass. then again if its a larger the average one thats hard as a rock, you could i guess

Gordon

Ehh... ok..

Beelzebub

I don't know if it is possible to choke on an ice cube(I wouldn't care to test it!) but there appears to be an alternative of sorts to the Heimlich on here:
I would substiture the hot water for very warm water maybe...but the cube would probably melt pretty fast on its own if you didn't panic...
(plus other 'helpful tips' - that I definitely would not recommend!)
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/439402-post1.html

Home Remedies

Home Remedies:

1 . If you are choking on an ice cube, don't panic. Simply pour a cup of boiling water down your throat and presto! The blockage will be almost instantly removed.

2. Clumsy? Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

3. Avoid arguments with the Mrs. about lifting the toilet seat by simply using the sink.

4. High blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for a while, thus reducing the pressure in your veins.

5. A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep when you hit the snooze button.

6. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives; then you will be afraid to cough.

7. Have a bad toothache? Hit your thumb with a hammer; then you will forget about the toothache..

AND.....sometimes we just need to remember what The Rules of Life really are.
You need only two tools: WD-40 and duct tape.
If it doesn't move and it should, use WD-40. If it moves and shouldn't, use the duc t tape.
__________________
"Narcotics Anonymous offers addicts a program of recovery that is more than just a life without drugs. Not only is this way of life better than the hell we lived, it is better than any life we have ever known." "More will be revealed" NA Basic Text pg 103

Gordon

Moved from PI.

CiaranC

lol, best thread title ever

InFront

teacherdee wrote:

I often tell this story because I used to be terrified of drowning, but I think it would be a lovely way to die after my experience of what it feels like to lose consciousness from axphyxiation

But losing consciousness from choking would be quite different to the sensation of drowning, where your lungs are taking in water and breathing is uncomfortable, the heart starts to fail and body temperature would drop... it would be a much longer process.

But glad your temporary asphyxiation was so... pleasant!!

Karoma

Seriously, was it a sex game "or something" gone wrong?

foxy06

Home Remedies:

1 . If you are choking on an ice cube, don't panic. Simply pour a cup of boiling water down your throat and presto! The blockage will be almost instantly removed.

Do you have to wait for the kettle to boil?:rolleyes:

Karoma

foxy06 wrote:

Do you have to wait for the kettle to boil?:rolleyes:

So, you're wondering whether anti-freeze would work instead?

Flukey

If something gets caught in your throat you can choke. There is no reason why the offending article could not be an ice-cube. The melting of it might not give enough time. It would depend on the size and shape of the ice-cube, the size of your throat and how it had got lodged.

Theta

InFront wrote:

But losing consciousness from choking would be quite different to the sensation of drowning, where your lungs are taking in water and breathing is uncomfortable, the heart starts to fail and body temperature would drop... it would be a much longer process.

But glad your temporary asphyxiation was so... pleasant!!

Did I not read somewhere that drowning was a completely painless way to die , although terrifying and disturbing clearly I though you felt no pain.

InFront

I haven't heard that it's painless, you could be right, but drowning is very different to choking. The effort to try and breathe with water in your lungs, accompanied by trashing about and your circulation failing and subsequently temperature dropping would drag the process out more so than choking - where its pretty much straight to unconsciousness.

Not that it matters, I plan on drifting away quietly in my sleep in about seventy years time!!

Healio

If you had of died, id imagine the your ex would be charged with murder. Bangs to the head, and no sign of the throat blockage as it has probably melted. . . . . .. .. . . . ..

"No officer, she really did choke on a piece of ice!!"

MrJoeSoap

Healio wrote:

If you had of died, id imagine the your ex would be charged with murder. Bangs to the head, and no sign of the throat blockage as it has probably melted. . . . . .. .. . . . ..

"No officer, she really did choke on a piece of ice!!"

Rofl, brilliant and very possibly true.

Healio wrote:

If you had of died, id imagine the your ex would be charged with murder. Bangs to the head, and no sign of the throat blockage as it has probably melted. . . . . .. .. . . . ..

"No officer, she really did choke on a piece of ice!!"

I saw somewhere thats how the russian mafia kill people-stuff their throats with snow

mukki

Beelzebub wrote:

Home Remedies:

1 . If you are choking on an ice cube, don't panic. Simply pour a cup of boiling water down your throat and presto! The blockage will be almost instantly removed.

2. Clumsy? Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

3. Avoid arguments with the Mrs. about lifting the toilet seat by simply using the sink.

4. High blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for a while, thus reducing the pressure in your veins.

5. A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep when you hit the snooze button.

6. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives; then you will be afraid to cough.

7. Have a bad toothache? Hit your thumb with a hammer; then you will forget about the toothache..

AND.....sometimes we just need to remember what The Rules of Life really are.
You need only two tools: WD-40 and duct tape.
If it doesn't move and it should, use WD-40. If it moves and shouldn't, use the duc t tape.

you gotta love the viz comic, though its been crap for over 10 years now

tman

mukki wrote:

you gotta love the viz comic, though its been crap for over 10 years now

It's still mildly amusing... (my bro got an annual for Christmas)

I reckon urine would be the best bet in a situation like the OP's

YeatsCounty

I'm sure that a big enough ice cube would cause enough of an obstruction to cause death or at least some brain damage to a person if they choked on it. If a person was sucking on a large ice cube and swallowed it by mistake, it could find its way down to the windpipe easily enough.

InFront wrote:

I haven't heard that it's painless, you could be right, but drowning is very different to choking. The effort to try and breathe with water in your lungs, accompanied by trashing about and your circulation failing and subsequently temperature dropping would drag the process out more so than choking - where its pretty much straight to unconsciousness.

AFAIK, drowning is just like a specialised form of choking in a way. In most cases, as soon as the breathing reflex hits and the drowning person inhales water, the throat closes up (laryngospasm), thus disallowing the person from inhaling any more water until it relaxes again. This relaxation usually occurs a couple of minutes after the person has drifted into unconsciousness. Well according to some pleasant reading (:rolleyes: ) on Wikipedia.

So, while I have never experienced anything like this and I never wish to, I can't see how drowning would be highly painful. Agony? Certainly, during the conscious phase, as well as terrifying.

DarkJager

From what I've heard of Ice-Cube, many women have nearly choked to death on him

Dutchology

DarkJager wrote:

From what I've heard of Ice-Cube, many women have nearly choked to death on him

....too easy :rolleyes:

Victor

I'm guessing that you would loose consciousness and seriously risk death before the ice cube melts.

tman wrote:

I reckon urine would be the best bet in a situation like the OP's

Possibly, if the warm liquid doesn't work, the gag reflex might.

Of course, you can't die from holding your own breath, as once you black out, survival reflexes will kick in making you breath again.

teacherdee

InFront wrote:

But losing consciousness from choking would be quite different to the sensation of drowning, where your lungs are taking in water and breathing is uncomfortable, the heart starts to fail and body temperature would drop... it would be a much longer process.

But glad your temporary asphyxiation was so... pleasant!!

Yeah, I agree with you that it would be a different experience altogether. However, I'd say it's takes about the same amount of time from going from a panicked state when your air supply gets cut off, (which I most definitely was in), to unconciousness in either case. Any discomfort and pain actually disappears quite soon, and there is a good while before your eyes close and you fall over, when you can understand what is happening to you, but you're completely calm. It's a terribly difficult feeling to describe, but after it kicked so all the rest of it wouldn't really affect you.

I've heard that drowning is one of the most pleasant ways to die, but not of course if you fell overboard and suffered from hypothermia or what have you.

teacherdee

tman wrote:

It's still mildly amusing... (my bro got an annual for Christmas)

I reckon urine would be the best bet in a situation like the OP's

Hahaha, I'd say it would be pretty difficult to go in that situation, what with the stress and all. Maybe it's different for a girl, but I'd know I'd definitley get performance pressure or whatever they're calling it these days if I suddenly had to urinate to prevent somebody from choking!

It would be even worse if I ended up dying and there was piss all over me. What a court case that would be, what would the guards think? I'd hate to be remembered as the person at the centre of THAT murder mystery.

Oh well, I got this from Wikipedia

'In an experiment where dogs were suffocated by placing an air-tight rubber mask over the dogs' heads, it was shown that it took around 8 minutes for the dogs to go into cardiac arrest. Breathing movements continued and the animals engaged in violent struggle or had convulsions until the point of death.'

So I suppose if the ice-cube could stay lodged for around that long I could die. I'll just keep on telling the story as my near-death experience.

Healio

teacherdee wrote:

I've heard that drowning is one of the most pleasant ways to die

Who did ye hear that from, the survivors???

Fraggle Rocks

teacherdee wrote:

'In an experiment where dogs were suffocated by placing an air-tight rubber mask over the dogs' heads, it was shown that it took around 8 minutes for the dogs to go into cardiac arrest. Breathing movements continued and the animals engaged in violent struggle or had convulsions until the point of death.'

So I suppose if the ice-cube could stay lodged for around that long I could die. I'll just keep on telling the story as my near-death experience.

well, you had about three minutes until you got severe brain damage.

nobodythere

Beelzebub wrote:

4. High blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for a while, thus reducing the pressure in your veins.

This used to be a medical remedy for most things, it used to be a barbers job. It's where that red and white barber pole came from

nobodythere

Gimme the width of the ice cube, the specific heat capacity, the width of the windpipe and the temperature of your body and move this to the Maths forum

teacherdee

grasshopa wrote:

Gimme the width of the ice cube, the specific heat capacity, the width of the windpipe and the temperature of your body and move this to the Maths forum

Yah, but do you think I might start to have spasms of some sort that might affect it? You can't because you don't really know how stretchy that windpipe is in the first place, and I'd sure it's not uniform, or is it? Can we find out how stretchy it is? Maybe I should write to mythbusters. They might give me a prize!!!!

nobodythere

They might. Or they might just... not.

You should send it into thestraightdope.com, nowhere ese will you find so many answers!