Question regarding car crash death?

Hi everyone,

Last Saturday a friend of mine died in a car crash. He was 19 years old.

He crashed on an unfinished part of a country road, so the surface just had stones on it. He skidded across the road, hitting a wall and then a pier, and the car flipped over.

He was wearing a seatbelt. The car was crushed front and top.

I was told he lived for twenty minutes. I know this is a stupid question, but does anyone know about car crashes? What I want to know is - what is the liklihood that he was semi conscious and suffering, or would he have been unconscious and not feeling anything?

When you are unconscious, can you still feel things?

I just want to know if he suffered. I seen him today and his face was puffy, and just scratches on the right side of his face and head. No other marks really can be seen.

Thanks everyone.
Additional Details
Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer this question for me. I appreciate each and every one of them. I agree I shouldnt focus, I just hope and pray that he didnt feel pain, as he didnt deserve it. He was buried today, so I guess its time to try and start to get my life back on track. Hopefully, it will turn out that he died instantly, I would rather know that then to have survived 20 minutes at the scene. Anyway, thanks everyone, I really appreciate your help and thoughts.

dunrobin46

Sorry to hear of your loss.

The blunt truth is that you will never know for sure.

Being unconscious is the same as being in a deep sleep or under anaesthetic you feel nothing and know nothing.

When the doctors say "lived for 20 minutes," they mean that in medical terms, i.e. heart was beating. It doesn't mean he was conscious.

You say the car was crushed, the reality is that the first jolt made him unconscious and he knew or felt nothing from that point on.

RamRaDaR69.

please don't think about it,all you know now is that he is in peace,i know what your thoughts are,and if you don't get them out of your head now,you will be the one who suffers,like the others have said,it will tear you up,my uncle was killed in a crash,i was sat next to a girl who died in a crash,and i seen my brother who had been murdered,and believe me,i am just starting to get my life back on track,after 13 years.its sad,and i feel for you and his family.if its any consolation,i don't think he will of suffered a great deal,as when your body goes into trauma,it shuts down etc,pain barriers,brain activity,that's what we were told anyway.peAce.

Nintendouche

when i was in a car crash, i felt the initial crash because my car tyre exploded on the motorway and crashed into a barrier but when rolled over which knocked me out, when i hit the barrier i felt alot of pain in my head and with the seatbelt stopping me i felt alot of back pain but about 3 seconds later i felt nothing since i was knocked out

Please punctuate properly folks.

Sorry to hear of your loss. Don't upset yourself further thinkig of this, but just know this... The panic and shock of the accident happening would have flooded his system with adrenaline, and other very powerful endorphins released by the supradrenal glands, just as troops wounded in conflict report when shot or injured. Many of them are unaware they have lost limbs until they recieve medical attention. That is a very high level of pain-blocking, which usually lasts for a number of hours.
I was once pitched off a dumper on a construction site, when a buried pipe collapsed. I took a very hard impact on my knee, but couldn't feel it for two hours. It's a defence mechanism the body keeps up its' sleeve.

squeakycheek

Honestly, don't think about it, Remember the good times instead.

Need input

I think that when the body is under such trauma it switches off to any conscious pain. I wouldnt get hung up on thinking about it. I lost a friend in a very nasty accident and she was conscious for awhile and seriously injured - she couldnt feel a thing. She had not been given any drugs either. Shock and trauma have a funny way of switching feeling off so I would like to think that no - your friend did not suffer. You are unconscious during Ops...something ive been thru and you really have no awareness. My firefighter friend had to cut her out at the scene, and like he says - its often more traumatic for the ppl who witness it and the ppl left behind.

Sorry to hear your news, its tough. Think of all the good times and channel your worry into helping out the family or raising some funds for his fav charity maybe ?

pink moon

You don't want to know either way. Don't tear yourself up about it

In a situation such as this your body would be so pumped with adrenaline it is unlikely he would have felt any pain and he was most likely unconscious anyway.
Sorry for your tragic loss

desert camel

hard question to answer...i suspect it was a very hard one to ask....he wouldnt have felt anything.....

Max

Either way, twenty minutes is just a drop in the bucket. If he suffered, he's not suffering anymore, but at the very least he was likely in shock and not completely aware of what was going on.

Sandti

I'm sorry for you loss.
The likely hood is that he probably felt the pain before he went semi concious, after that he would of obviously felt pain but he wouldn't feel it if that makes sense?
If I were you, I'd try not to think about it, I know it's easier said than done. He wouldn't have suffered for very long if he suffered at all.
I'm sorry to hear about him.
<3 x

Xai

Ask this question in six months time - not now. If you still want to know after that, ask again. I'm really sorry to hear about your loss.

If you are unconscious you can't feel anything.

jacquie10730

My mother and I were in a serious car accident when I was five. A car carrying three teenage boys struck the passenger side of our car as we were crossing the intersection in snowy conditions. My mom had some cuts and bruises but I was thrown from the car (in the days before seat belts) and suffered some pretty bad injuries. The three boys in the other vehicle also suffered badly... brain damage and head and facial nerve damage among many other problems. I understand these had life long effects on them.

I have no memory of the actual impact or of being thrown... obviously I lost consciousness. I did, however, regain consciousness while lying in the snow near the car. My mom picked me up and carried me into a nearby house. I was not at all coherent, kind of fading in and out. I also remember feeling pain from all of the internal injuries and some of the eventual ambulance trip to the hospital. Most of it is all very fuzzy.

The point of my story is this.... My belief is that in such a catastrophic crash there is simply no time to recognize what is happening and consequently no real suffering, especially if there is a loss of consciousness. Even looking back at the incident, I have no memory of any kind of fear, even when I regained consciousness and was in pain.

Like most, I have a healthy fear of these kinds of accidents and an apprehension about the final moments of life. I think, however, I have had a unique glimpse of such an experience and it is comforting that the event did not burn any lasting moments of terror or suffering in my mind.

I hope this offers you some help and insight. Like the others who have answered, I feel certain that your friend in no way recognized what happened and certainly had no conscious experience of that final 20 minutes.

Best wishes,
Jacquie10730

UCANTCME

That is a tough question to answer because being in that state your friend may or may not have felt anything but the best thing to do is just remember the way they he was...

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