F
Falling Slowly
Student
- Sep 9, 2023
- 133
So you mean that if we are rescued during suicide and before complete death, there is a possibility of brain damage due to oxygen reaching the brain.
1- What is the percentage of this happening
2- How much time is required to die with helium and nitrogen
3- Does helium or nitrogen gas have to be 100% pure
4- Is this type of death painless
Well, I'm not an expert on inert gas deaths/ctb, but yes, if you're unconscious long enough and rescued before ctb, then there is that possibility. It's not guaranteed, but instead of your brain receiving oxygen, it will be receiving near 100% nitrogen/other inert gas. This causes a thing called hypoxia, which can potentially damage the brain.
But as regards your questions:
1) no idea
2) The peaceful pill handbook says 5-10 mins
3) As near to 100% as possible. I think the figure people usually give is > 99. @intoxitated says > 98% should be ok (see his post above, post #4,149 )
4) Meant to be, according to the PPH. And Dignitas(Swiss right-to-assisted-dying organisation) who did the inert gas method on one occasion.
I came across a piece about a South Korean man who went to a hospital, 5 days after he attempted to ctb via nitrogen and a plastic bag. Not sure exactly what his setup was, or how much gas he had. The paper just said he lost consciousness, then regained it a few hours later (I presume he didn't have enough gas to ctb).
Anyway, he showed up at the hospital with symptoms of diplopia (double vision), headache, and numbness and cramping in his hands. A CT scan showed no abnormalities; an MRI scan showed some high signal intensity in parts of his brain. But his symptoms improved, and he was released after 15 days, with no apparent damage to his brain.
Again, hard to know if he just had enough nitrogen to lose consciousness, but maybe didn't have enough to ctb. It's here if you want to look at it.
In 2008, Dignitas did an inert gas trial of 4 people (they usually use pentobarbital when doing assisted suicide), where they hooked up helium to a face mask. The times it took to lose consciousness, and die, are shown here:
They said the reason the fourth person took a lot longer to ctb (~40 mins versus ~5-9 mins for the others), was probably because her mask was not as tight-fitting. As euthanasia is illegal there (as opposed to assisted suicide), the attendants could not adjust the person's mask to ensure its tightness. (all of it was filmed for the police, as assisted suicide often is by Dignitas).
Pic of type of mask used:
Full pdf study paper on that Dignitas trial can be downloaded free from here.
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