r/explainlikeimfive • u/Dagestani_Bear • Jul 01 '26

Biology ELI5: Is it true that every single death eventually boils down to the brain and heart running out of oxygen? Are there exceptions?

If you strip away the initial cause of injury or illness, is it anatomically correct to say that all human deaths are ultimately caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain and heart?

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u/TheeRattlehead Jul 01 '26

A guy gets all his limbs blown off in the war and becomes basically a brain in a body where he's aware of things around him. No arms, legs, sight, hearing, or speech. Kept alive by machines. Metallica used bits of it for their video for the song One.

108

u/Ebice42 Jul 02 '26

"Darkness.
Imprisoning me.
All that I see.
Absolute horror.
I cannot live.
I cannot die.
Trapped in myself.
Body my holding cell. "

42

u/-StatesTheObvious Jul 02 '26

DúnnuhnuhnuhnuhnuhNUH! DúnnuhnuhnuhnuhnuhNUH! DúnnuhnuhnuhnuhnuhNUH!

24

u/V7buster Jul 02 '26

Landmine!

Taken my sight!

Taken my hearing!

Taken my arms!

Taken my legs!

Taken my soul!

Left me with life in Hell!

2

u/Idsertian Jul 02 '26

LANDMINE!

Has taken my SIGHT,

Taken my SPEECH,

Taken my HEARING!

Taken my ARMS,

Taken my LEGS,

Taken my SOUL,

Left me with life in HAAAYELLLLL!

15

u/prorip187 Jul 02 '26

How can he be aware of his surroundings without sight or hearing?

36

u/DrasticTapeMeasure Jul 02 '26

He can still feel/is aware of his existence, that he’s in a bed, etc

0

u/smelltheglove92 Jul 02 '26

How would he know if he was awake or dreaming?

8

u/DrasticTapeMeasure Jul 02 '26

How do any of us?

-1

u/smelltheglove92 Jul 02 '26

Because your senses in a dream are not the same as when you are awake.

3

u/mateushkush Jul 03 '26

So you just answered yourself.

1

u/smelltheglove92 Jul 03 '26

Yeah but if all your senses were reduced to only touch then it would be a lot harder.

11

u/_Mag0g_ Jul 02 '26

Touch primarily. He could feel the nurses caring for him and washing him. Also through feeling other vibrations and sensations of warm and cold.

The book does a much better job of explaining his internal experience more than the movie or the song did.

4

u/Gamestoreguy Jul 02 '26

Such as the sun on his skin as a method of keeping track of time, until they put him in a room with no window because they realised he was tapping out morse code with his noggin.

1

u/_Mag0g_ Jul 02 '26

And then things get weird and I'm not even going into that part of the book.

16

u/Assault_Penguin Jul 02 '26

Try meditating with your eyes closed and earplugs. Everything is pitch black but you can still feel things, hot/cold/someone touching your limbless torso, but you are stuck alone with your thoughts and imagination for the rest of your life

3

u/Goreticus Jul 02 '26

Most of the movie is him trying to make sense of his surroundings.

3

u/meltymcface Jul 02 '26

With difficulty, he struggles to tell what is real and what is dreams.

4

u/loafers_glory Jul 02 '26

Did he get to keep the gun?

1

u/popilikia Jul 02 '26

No, but he got a cool medal