Does one feel a bullet to the head?

A

Andrew256

Registered Senior Member
First of all a disclaimer: I'm not suicidal nor homicidal, nor planning to harm anyone. I'm asking purely out of curiosity, knowledge, and respect for people who unjustly died from a bullet wounds

So, I didn't find a more appropriate section on this forum, because as strange as the question sounds, it deals with biology and neurons.

We see in countless action movies people being killed with a bullet to the head. In most cases, it results in an instant "lights out" (especially if the brain is blown up by the shotgun or magnum shot), but in some movies you can see the victim to stay conscious for a few seconds (especially when small caliber is used). I'm mostly curious what happens in case of a more common caliber, in the range of: 9mm, .38, 5.56, 7.62

So, imagine a typical scene from the movie - a bullet penetrates the brain directly and exits the other side, painting the wall in blood and pieces of brain matter, victim is instantly dead. Or so it seems. What does he really feel in this instant? Does he feel any pain for a moment? I know it happens very fast, but a brain is also capable of transmitting signals very, very fast. And even though all motor functions may cease, how long a conscious can remain until it fades out from this kind of damage? half a second? a second? longer?

Are there any scientific knowledge that can help answer those questions? Am I crazy for being curious about this?
 
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The areas that process this kind of information need to get it. How fast do they receive information? Then does anything act on that information? More transmission time? Plus time to act, say "ouch" perhaps?
 
Andrew256 said:
So, imagine a typical scene from the movie - a bullet penetrates the brain directly and exits the other side, painting the wall in blood and pieces of brain matter,
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BRAIN SIGNALS

268 miles/hour

The speed of these signals depends on how fast the exchange of charged ions is inside and outside of the cell membrane. The main ions involved are sodium, potassium, chloride, and calcium. Without going into details, I can say that messages in the brain can travel at speeds up to 268 miles/hour

http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=1950

268 miles/hour = 393 foot/sec

BULLETS

2,500 feet per second

Bullets. The average bullet travels at 2,500 feet per second (around 1,700 mph). If you reacted to the sound of the gun going off and required 0.20 seconds (twice that of the fastest Olympic sprinters) to react, then you would need to be at least 500 feet away to successfully dodge a bullet.

http://www.mythbusterstheexhibition.com/science-content/dodge-a-bullet/

2,500 feet per second = 1704 miles/hour

Brain signals - 393 foot/sec
Bullet - 2,500 foot/sec

Bullet 6.36 times faster

Draw your own conclusions

Andrew256 said:
Are there any scientific knowledge that can help answer those questions? Am I crazy for being curious about this?
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No survivers if my calculations are correct

Don't know if you would consider the calculations "scientific knowledge"

I have looked after a patient who shot himself in the head. Surgion saved him and after many years he was semi independent

Gawdzilla Sama said:
Plus time to act, say "ouch" perhaps?
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Based on my calculations NO

:)
 
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Andrew256 said:
Thanks for the elaborate answer :)

I'm glad that he survived and this is probably not something to ask a patient, but has he ever talked about his experience?
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I said there was more to the story

He had shot and killed his wife and son before shooting himself

One of the person's involved with his recovery was a speech therapist

I think she had the impression he was capable of speech with other parts of the brain takeing over the function. But he never did speak. Couldn't or wouldn't the speech therapist could not diagnosis

When I came on the ward where he was being looked after he had been receiving bed baths

I was having none of that. I made him get out of bed and into the shower. His mother was visiting at the time. Not impressed. However with time she understood. I stayed with him while he washed

When he was showering a nurse assistant was able to make his bed properly

Someone months later he was discharged to a care village where he lived a semi independent life

He never did stand trial

:)
 
These stories remind me of one of my men, a young man who was going to shoot a scorpion off his toes with a shotgun.

I sent that boy home, he wasn't safe.
 
Gawdzilla Sama said:
These stories remind me of one of my men, a young man who was going to shoot a scorpion off his toes with a shotgun.

I sent that boy home, he wasn't safe.
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Yes I see your point

It might have been a bullet proof scorpion and the bullet bounce off and hurt him

Or the noise of the gun scare scorpion into stinging the boy

Well done sending him home, definitely not safe to be around scorpions

:)
 
Andrew256 said:
What does he really feel in this instant? Does he feel any pain for a moment?
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The brain itself doesn’t have any pain receptors; that’s why brain surgery can be performed on a fully conscious person. But everything surrounding the brain does contain highly sensitive pain receptors. There’s no doubt that being shot in the head would be excruciatingly painful. But for how long? I don’t know – the answer depends on a lot of factors.

There are endless accounts of significant brain trauma (bullets and otherwise) from which people have survived. Phineas Gage is one of the classic examples. (Google him if you’re not familiar.) A radical treatment for severe uncontrollable epilepsy is a temporal lobectomy where a large chunk of the temporal lobe is surgically removed.

I guess it all depends on what parts of the brain are damaged and the extent of the damage. For instance, we can get away with losing portions of the cerebral cortex associated with higher cognitive function. We usually can’t get away with losing the pons or medulla regions as these control basic involuntary motor functions like respiration. Also, there are also large arteries in the brain that, if ruptured, will kill from blood loss.
 
If it did not kill you or render you unconscious, you would surely feel it. I am not sure otherwise.

Even if the brain has no pain receptors, you would feel the bullet hitting your head.

If you were killed or rendered unconscious, I am not sure if you would have a momentary pain sensation first.
 
birch said:
what a silly question. if a migraine hurts..
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I used to swing a pair of Browning .50 cal. heavy machine guns. The bullets are about 1 ounce of lead and leave the barrel at supersonic speed.* The bullet still have enough velocity at four miles to kill a man. That's a bullet to the head, a migraine is a physical problem of organic character.
 
From Rockefeller Post 10
The brain itself doesn’t have any pain receptors; that’s why brain surgery can be performed on a fully conscious person.
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Conscious without a local anesthetic?

I would expect pain when cutting the skin to reach the skull. I am guessing that the skull has no pain receptors, but am not sure.

BTW: While I do not doubt your assertion about the brain having no pain receptors, it seems reasonable to expect a citation for such a remark.
 
My guess is that there would be confusion in the brain, something like a dream, as the brain attempted to resume its "train of thought", until all brain activity ceased.
 
sideshowbob said:
My guess is that there would be confusion in the brain, something like a dream, as the brain attempted to resume its "train of thought", until all brain activity ceased.
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A good guess. Multiple studies suggest that consciousness is not focused in a specific part of a brain, and if you spontaneously loose a part of your brain, the consciousness is probably not going to shut down instantly, but fade out similar to analog signal. Yes, it's very fast, but I'm curious as to what one feels in this instant. This is not about gun wounds, but any severe brain damage in general...
 
Side note: The NKVD used to bill the families of someone who was shot in the head for the cost of the bullet. Myth or not?
 
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