It turns out that Bob Woolmer, the coach of the Pakistani cricket team may have been throttled in his hotel room.
What is strangulation? How can this be carried out? What happens in the body of someone who is being strangled? Here you can find several interesting facts concerning strangulation:
* When someone is being strangled, his windpipe is blocked by pressure around the neck. Pressure on the larynx or the trachea leads to asphyxia. As a result, the air flow is interrupted, the same ass the flow of oxygen to the brain. This could result in unconsciousness and death.
* We can talk of three types of strangulation: manual, ligature and choke hold. In manual strangulation hands and fingers are used, in the ligature strangulation a rope or some kind of fabric is used, and in the last type either a noose or a device that has been specially designed for this purpose.
* As a consequence of strangulation, oxygenated blood is prevented from getting to the brain. In serious cases this could result in brain damage and even death. Pressure on the larynx or the trachea leads to asphyxia.
* It can take not more than 7 -14 seconds for a person to die if a strangulation is successful. However, very few people last more than one minute or two, unless they somehow succeed in loosening the stranglehold.
* Physical strength is necessary in order to strangle a person by hands. It is not a method of murder that is favored by people lacking physical strength, due to the fact that they will be not able to overpower their victim.
* When someone is hanged, they are asphyxiated by their own body weight pulling on the noose. With manual or ligature strangulation this doesn’t happen.
* Forensic symptoms of manual strangulation involve: small round bruises, scratch marks (as the victim attempted to loosen the stranglehold), blueness of the tongue, bleeding under the skin and damage to the larynx.
* Ligature scratches may leave a wide bruise whereas wires or cords can cut into the neck or leave a sharp line.
* Hanging is a preferred method of suicide, nevertheless it not possible for anybody to choke themselves in any other way, as with loss of consciousness breathing resumes.
* In contradiction of popular opinion, death by strangulation is typically caused not by the limited air flow to the lungs, but by a lack of oxygen flow to the brain.
