What is strangulation, how is it done and what happens in the body of someone who is strangled. Here are some interesting facts on the topic:

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• When someone is strangled, his windpipe is blocked by pressure around the neck. Pressure on the larynx or the trachea causes asphyxia. The air flow is interrupted, as is the flow of oxygen to the brain. This could lead to unconsciousness and death.


• There are three types of strangulation: manual, ligature and choke hold. In the first instance hands and fingers are used, in the second a rope or some sort of fabric is used, and in the last either a noose or a specially designed device.


• Strangulation stops oxygenated blood from getting to the brain. In severe cases this could lead to brain damage and death. Pressure on the larynx or the trachea causes asphyxia.


• It can take as little as 7 -14 seconds for someone to die if a chokehold is applied effectively. But few people last more than a minute or two, unless they somehow manage to loosen the stranglehold.


• Physical strength is needed to strangle someone manually. It is not a method of murder that is favoured by people who lack physical strength, as they will be unable to overpower their victim.


• When a person is hanged, they are asphyxiated by their own body weight pulling on the noose. With manual or ligature strangulation this is not the case.


• Forensic signs of manual strangulation include small round bruises, scratch marks (as the victim tried to loosen the stranglehold), blueness of the tongue, bleeding under the skin and damage to the larynx.


• Ligature marks can leave a wide bruise while wires or cords can cut into the neck or leave a sharp line.


• Hanging is a favoured method of suicide, but it impossible for anyone to strangle themselves in any other way, as with loss of consciousness breathing resumes.


• Contrary to popular opinion death by strangulation is mostly not caused by the restriction of air flow to the lungs, but by a lack of oxygen flow to the brain.

(Sources: www.wikipedia.org, www.forensicmed.co.uk, www.emedicine.com)

(Leandra Engelbrecht and Susan Erasmus, Health24.com, March 2007)

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