Carotid artery

I don't know the exact answer to that, but I suspect the victim has bigger problems if the bite was from a vampire.

I can't answer the medical questions, but the results will depend a bit on your particular vampire lore.
* If your vampire hypnotizes or otherwise sedates the victim beforehand, and the victim remains sedated, a slower heartrate will give them more time.
* If they're aware and struggling, they'll loose blood faster and might also tear the wound. But they can shout for help which is a massive bonus!
* If vampire bites are usually quick-sealing into pinprick holes, they'll loose less blood.
* Amount of blood drained changes things, too, as does the size and health levels of your victim. I can give 500ml of blood (single needle puncture, wound sealed with a plaster afterwards), which is roughly 11% of my total blood, and be fine to leave almost immediately afterwards.
* If your victim was out drinking before the incident, or at an intense gym class, or running from the off-putting fanged person on their tail, they might be in serious trouble from the dehydration.
* If your victim is female and anemic by nature/by time-of-the-month/by pregnancy, they're in real trouble.
* Things the victim might experience: dizziness if moving quickly, inability to stand for a bit after the incident, thirst, craving sweet things (if low energy) or a burger (if low iron), craving dirt, clay, corn starch, paint chips, cardboard, cleaning supplies or ice (low iron), cracked lips (dehydration/low iron), tiredness, paleness, loss of breath, headaches, feeling like your heart is beating too fast. Cold hands and feet.

I can answer medically. If you are going for the kill you can use the carotid. Blood would squirt out under a fair amount of pressure until the blood pressure fell.

If not going for the kill you want your vampire to use the jugular vein, not the carotid. Carotids are large arteries under a fair amount of pressure. Blood would squirt out the puncture wounds and you'd need pressure for a good five minutes or more to stop the bleeding. Not so with the vein.

The venous side of our circulatory system has gone through capillaries losing all pressure driven by the heart contractions. The pressure in veins is about 4-6mm mercury (above atmospheric pressure).

You've got more time with a vein, like the jugular. It's "used" blood on its way back to the heart. With the carotid, you've got high-pressure blood coming directly *from* the heart. The problem is that the veins and arteries in the throat are extremely close together.

You can add the presence of a coagulant to your vampires saliva, which is something often used to explain why victims don't always bleed out in vampire stories, or explain that the fangs aren't "puncturing" the vein, but nicking it instead, so the internal wound is smaller.

Basically, you've got a creature who would have to make their puncture and then remove the fangs, either by repositioning their own teeth or by having the fangs retractable. (you can't get blood out of the vein if the fangs are still in there). If you go this route, then you can have the same creature seal the puncture with its tongue, allowing an enzyme in their saliva to seal the wounds. Even if they're not trying to seal the wounds, the presence of a coagulant could help someone survive longer, as the blood would clot better and stem the flow. You'd still want it to be a vein, not an artery.

efreysson said:

And how long would the victim stay conscious/alive?

Click to expand...

The timing would depend on how much blood the vampire took. Average blood volume in an adult is 5-6 liters. You can lose 30% or so and still be conscious depending on your previous health. 40% and you'd probably be in hypovolemic shock.

These times seem a bit fast to me so they must be counting very large lacerations to large arteries: Exsanguination Time from Damage to Major Arteries

efreysson said:

Wait, so you're saying a victim can save themselves from a punctured carotid by simply applying pressure?

Click to expand...

Absolutely, the victim, if conscious, could put enough pressure on a couple of carotid punctures to stop the bleeding. You can occlude one carotid, and the carotid on the other side of the neck would still be perfusing the brain.


If you read vampire stories or see movies, authors never pay attention to this sort of thing. Who writes that the vampire sucks 5 liters of blood at a feeding? If you are otherwise healthy, try drinking 5 liters of water, see how fast you can get it down.

efreysson said:

I'm writing my vampires as being very much killers.



That's a very sensible little detail I'm going to have to include. Good point.



And here I was thinking that a severed carotid was pretty much a death sentence.

Click to expand...

There's a difference between punctured and severed. For a severed artery, it depends on if someone is there to get the bleeding under control. You would bleed out fairly quickly, but it's not a certain death sentence. And if you were alone but you knew what to do, a person could survive a severed carotid.

It takes a lot of pressure to stop bleeding from a large artery. They have very muscular walls.

As a somewhat gruesome aside, a few years ago here in my town there was an altercation among two groups of people outside a popular trendy bar, in the parking lot. Somebody in one group threw a beer bottle at the other group. It struck a parked car, broke, and the main piece ricocheted directly into the side of the neck of one person. It severed the carotid, and the guy was dead, for all intents and purposes, within a minute or maybe less.

caw

Less than a minute is what I've heard, too. People panic and their heart beats faster, speeding up the process.

Cyia said:

Less than a minute is what I've heard, too. People panic and their heart beats faster, speeding up the process.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry but you have to have mega blood loss to die within a minute. A large wound in the major blood vessels in the chest or the heart would do it. Decapitation, that would do it. Big hole in your head, the brain is full of blood that pours out fast, big wound to the liver or spleen with no immediate access to surgery and you'd die quite quickly.

Just for comparison, your femoral artery is bigger than your carotid. You can survive a leg amputation at the thigh if one gets a tourniquet on fast enough.

Mean diameters of ICA [internal carotid] (4.66±0.78 mm) and CCA [common carotid] (6.10±0.80 mm) in women were significantly smaller than in men: 5.11±0.87 mm and 6.52±0.98 mm, respectively.

The diameter of the common femoral artery in healthy human: ... The mean and median diameters for the CFA were 9.8 mm and 9.7 mm in male subjects and 8.2 mm and 8.2 mm in female subjects (ie, without significant differences).


But other than worrying about technical correctness, there is a lot of flexibility when you are writing fiction. If you want your character to die within a minute, cut into the trachea when you are severing the carotid.

Even though I don't write crime fiction, I subscribe to a blog called The Crime Fiction Writer's Blog by Dr. D. P. Lyle and have read his book More Forensics and Fiction: Crime Writers' Morbidly Curious Questions Expertly Answered. I notice he frequently uses the term "slip into shock" which results from severe low blood pressure. Often something like: the victim slips into shock, and dies--like they are natural sequences.

So I think once the victim gets to this stage, it's more important who is there to help than whether it's one minute twelve seconds or one minute fifty six seconds.

Cyia said:

Basically, you've got a creature who would have to make their puncture and then remove the fangs, either by repositioning their own teeth or by having the fangs retractable. (you can't get blood out of the vein if the fangs are still in there).

Click to expand...

Okay, see, I always wondered about this. Having not read a great deal of vampire fiction, I always assumed that fangs were hollow, like medical needles, so they could suck the blood. Although, I suppose that would necessitate some kind of connection between the gums and the esophagus, otherwise the blood would dribble back out.

Related question: I'm not familiar with common lore, so is it normal for a vampire to look human, only shifting into vamp-face when feeding? If so, where do the fangs go? I read one story where there were flaps in the gums from which the fangs descend. That seemed intriguing, if a bit weird. (How would the fangs fit around the other teeth? Do the regular canines disappear when the fangs come out?)

Orianna2000 said:

Okay, see, I always wondered about this. Having not read a great deal of vampire fiction, I always assumed that fangs were hollow, like medical needles, so they could suck the blood. Although, I suppose that would necessitate some kind of connection between the gums and the esophagus, otherwise the blood would dribble back out.

Click to expand...

It's fairly common to see the need for blood explained as the "dead" body of the vampire lacking the ability to create its own red blood cells (no marrow, which makes their bones more like hollow bird bones). What they drink doesn't go into the stomach, but rather it refills their own circulatory system. This is why some stories will have a hungry vampire appear cold and wan, yet healthy looking and warm once they've eaten.

Related question: I'm not familiar with common lore, so is it normal for a vampire to look human, only shifting into vamp-face when feeding? If so, where do the fangs go? I read one story where there were flaps in the gums from which the fangs descend. That seemed intriguing, if a bit weird. (How would the fangs fit around the other teeth? Do the regular canines disappear when the fangs come out?)

Click to expand...

It really depends on the version of the lore and its culture of origin. Vampires can look like anything from emaciated ghouls to green-furred beasts. The humanoid vampire was mainly a convention that began around the time of Mary Shelley and Lord Byron, as "Lord Ruthven" the first mainstream story of a handsome/romantic-type vampire was based on Byron as a way to lampoon his misogynistic treatment of women (like Mary's sister, who was one of his mistresses).

If you're dealing with a story where the vampire has retractable fangs (again, it changes with story, region, and intent), you've usually got a situation with "descending" canines. They function something like snake's teeth (the HBO version of True Blood's vampires was pretty graphic with this, only they used incisors), only instead of venom, they inject something that gives the victim a buzz or pleasure overload.

Interesting! Lots to think about. Thanks!

Hey, sorry to resurrect this thread! Just seems super relevant to other people writing vampires (or neck injuries) and there's some distinct misinformation here. So for future reference:

I'm a farmer, and I process my own livestock, so I've, uh, cut a lot of throats. (I would guess ~1,000?) From experience, "less than a minute" to death from a severed carotid artery is pretty misleading. Done properly, it's a matter of seconds. (At least to fatal blood loss--a minute sounds about right from cut to death throes, but death throes come looong after game over.) And a severed artery is definitely a death sentence, unless I guess an ER surgeon happens to be standing over you at the time. Blood comes out of a cut throat like water out of a garden hose. Even a nicked artery, while not fatal if pressure bandages are applied, is a big deal. Blood will spray 5 or 10 feet away, easily. If the angle's right, it'll hit the ceiling.

If I were a vampire, I would not want that in my mouth. Like trying to drink out of a super-soaker. I think either the fangs would have to work like hypodermic needles--extremely fine tip and hollow, with some kind of hypodermic-needle-like vacuum system to control flow--with coagulating saliva, PLUS an utterly motionless victim, or they would want to drink out of the wrist or elbow.

Bottom line, putting holes in carotid arteries is not something you could do to people on a regular basis without incurring some casualties. (Though I would imagine the average vamp would be fine with that.)

Additionally, I saw somewhere above a suggestion that someone would die faster if you cut their trachea too. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Severing the trachea does nothing but panic the victim (this kind of blood loss otherwise calms you down to an almost hypnotic state after... ~3 seconds?). You can survive for ages with no air, comparatively.

I agree with abrowne.

As far as I know, the archetypal vampire drinks from the jugular, not the carotid anyway. This is also a large vessel that can lead to fatal hemorrhage, but it's a vein, not an artery, so the blood doesn't spurt. And it's superficial to the carotid as well, so it is easier to access without making a deep and more precise bite.