Head Punches.

[arnisador]

An article in the paper this past week discussed a Michigan man, Desmon Venn, being charged with death after a man he punched in the head died. The victim fell backward, hitting his head on the pavement and severing his brain stem. This was on 2 May 1994, and the man just died, nine years later, after having been in a coma all this time.

Another article spoke of a homeless man in San Diego punching an 84 year old woman in the face after she declined to give him money. Apparently she died from the punch itself. (Another San Diego story spoke of a criminal whose surname was Tuite, which was somewhat odd.) The man is on trial.

It goes to show once again that a punch to the head is always dangerous--often, it seems to me, because of the fall that follows, not the blow itself, but the blow itself can be dangerous.

 

[ekkaia]

well of course a punch to the head is dangerous... any blow to the head would be! it DOES house the brain afterall, and that affects every single nerve ending we have. of course it also depends on how you 'absorb' the blow. i mean if you're just standing around completely oblivious to an attack (like perhaps the old lady was), and someone comes up and whacks you right across the head, it'll be more dangerous than if you dodged a blow and only got clipped. and there's alot of things we can't see happening inside the body after a blow (just like if u punched someone in the stomach and caused a reaction throughout their body, and collapsed their lungs for eg. [hypothetical, i don't know if that would actually happen]). and y'know how they say about dropping ppl on their head, they're just not 'right' afterwards. so any blow, minor or major would have a serious effect imo.

 

[arnisador]

What I think people fail to recognize is that a blow to the head that clearly wouldn't kill in and of itself, barring unexpectedly bad luck (tears an artery, hits a previously weakened spot on a person, etc.) may well kill because of the fall. It's the fall that follows a brief loss of consciousness that often does it. The old woman presumably died from the force of the punch--rather more often, it's the force of the fall.

So, what a person thinks is a KO punch can easily be fatal.

 

[J-kid]

It takes alot to kill someone punching them at the head lvl, Look at boxers. Not to mention the head is the best spot to strike most of the time.

 

[Jill666]

But I think the take-home lesson is to be careful, and mindful. We have all taken good hits, and will take more. But to remember if we need to use our skills a) control in the dojo- these are friends with families and a slip can be deadly b) outside know that if we defend ourselves with the art, we WILL most likely go to jail.

It easy to say "I'd rather be judged by twelve than carried by six" but there's a great deal of responsibility that comes with deadly skill.

 

[dearnis.com]

Boxers aren't killed with punches to the head precisely because there is nothing hard for them to fall on.
There is a good warning here for everyone; whatever the actual consequences of your move, YOU are responsible for it whether intended or not. And whether you are right or wrong it can take a long, uncomfortable time for the facts to come out.
With the 84 year old I suspect there were underlying reasons the single blow was fatal, but there really is no reliable way to predict exactly how an individual will react to a particular physical impact.

 

[muayThaiPerson]

Originally posted by arnisador
An article in the paper this past week discussed a Michigan man, Desmon Venn, being charged with death after a man he punched in the head died. The victim fell backward, hitting his head on the pavement and severing his brain stem. This was on 2 May 1994, and the man just died, nine years later, after having been in a coma all this time.

Another article spoke of a homeless man in San Diego punching an 84 year old woman in the face after she declined to give him money. Apparently she died from the punch itself. (Another San Diego story spoke of a criminal whose surname was Tuite, which was somewhat odd.) The man is on trial.

It goes to show once again that a punch to the head is always dangerous--often, it seems to me, because of the fall that follows, not the blow itself, but the blow itself can be dangerous.

I dont understand, you said he died, but then you said he was in a coma

 

[arnisador]

Originally posted by muayThaiPerson
I dont understand, you said he died, but then you said he was in a coma

He was struck in a fistfight at a high school party in 1994 and went into a coma. He died this month after 9 years in the coma.

 

[theletch1]

We've all heard the "it takes such and such lbs of pressure to break such and such a bone in the human body" Barring the breaking of the temporal plate or the one in a million chance of putting a thin sliver of bone through the nasal passage into the brain a head shot is not NORMALLY a fatal blow as all of us who have taken more than a few of these shots know. I believe that a person would be more likely to die from a wedge hand or chop to the throat. The trick is to follow the plan of escape, control, destroy when defending ourselves. If you can't escape the situation then attempt to control your attacker with joint locks, bars and such. Hopefully this will convince your attacker to back off (with lots of "you're lucky I got better things to do, man" type talk from the guy you just tied up like a pretzel). If controlling the opponent doesn't work then the "destroy" techniques should be clearly justified. This is coming from a logical mind with some knowledge of the martial arts, however, not a juror who knows only what they see in the movies.....so......if you do have to defend yourself get as many witnesses as possible and find out what they saw as no two people are gonna see the same thing in a fight.

 

[sweeper]

hmm.. I recal about 5 or 6 years ago I had a youth soccer game, when I got there everyone seemed realy upset.. in the previous game a kid went up to head a ball and got undercut (he was trying to score so it was kind of cluttered) he landed on his neck and it "broke" he didn't survive. Anything you do can be "deadly" but I would wonder, statisticly how many people who have engaged in a fight die from a single punch to the head vs say how many people who have crossed a street have died doing so?

 

[Humble artist]

I do not know what the point is,but strike to head is not a case of fun,ever.
Many people,unaware of medical consequences and by media,may not recognize it.