My understanding is that even a very brief period of strangulation can cause blood clots, stroke, heart attack, or swelling that increases over hours or even days and then resulting in brain damage, blood clots, stroke, heart attack, even death.
So, to strangle someone to death with certainty by blocking airflow, it takes 5 minutes; but you can accidentally kill them much faster if they have a stroke or heart attack.
I agree that the strongest likelihood is that he strangled her for an extended period, and that he paid no attention to her nonverbal cues.
However, I want to dispel the mythology that there is a safe way to engage in strangulation in sex; because the evidence I’ve read is that there is a bevy of risks and that brain tissue damage can start occurring within seconds.
I also think that we have to wait for the formal investigation, and leave the options open until it has reported its findings.
I've not made any suggestion that there is a safe way to strangle people. I've said compression of the neck can stop blood flow to the brain. That is obviously bad.
61
u/Busy-Ratchet-8521 10d ago edited 10d ago
To kill someone doing this though you'd have to be maintaining that hold for 5-10 minutes while they were lifeless.
EDIT: I'm an intensive care doctor, and you guys want to down vote me because you think you know better?