How quickly can a heart attack kill you?

Answer 1

This depends on a few things. First what size the weapon is and second where in the heart it is plunged into. Generally any puncture of the right ventricle or major veins/arteries result in tamponade (the heart pericardium-sac fills with blood and stops the heart from expanding to fill itself) and a very quick death. If the weapon is left in, there are a few minutes of life possible. Now if the weapon punctures the left ventricle a person can live for a while longer because the wall of the left side is thicker and tends to seal itself after being stabbed. If the hole/puncture is big enough to compromise the pericardium and the heart then person usually bleeds out - to death - fast or slow depending on the size of the hole and if the weapon is left in or removed. If you are lucky enough to survive the first few seconds - DON'T REMOVE THE WEAPON - call 911, sit up right so you don't drown in your own blood and you might have a chance to make it to surgery to repair the heart and live. Pull the weapon out and death is almost always the outcome. Simple answer is you have between a couple seconds to about a half hour after you are stabbed to live.

Answer 2

Many variables here. What you are stabbed with? What is your condition level? What part of the heart is stabbed? How many times you are stabbed? How many chambers of the heart are compromised? Is the pericardium able to let the blood out or holding it in causing a tamponade (stopping the heart from filling because of pressure outside the heart)? What the weapon left in or pulled out? Large knife penetrating completely through the heart - left in, about a minute or so - pulled out, very quickly. Small knife or screwdriver penetrating the heart completely - left in, you could live to tell about it - pulled out a tamponade death within seconds. Just the left ventricle - weapon left in, you have chance to live to tell about it - just the right ventricle, or either auricle, weapon left in, maybe you make it - pulled out, a tamponade death within seconds. I survived a 7" long, 1" wide blade completely through the left ventricle and survived because the knife was left buried in my chest and a officer found me just after I was stabbed. He knew how to keep me going until the medics got there. People do survive - but usually because they get immediate help, are in good condition and the weapon is left in.

Answer 3

The heart would stop beating, so about 4 minutes

Answer 4

just in a second