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Sebastian Shaw might easily survive [Spoilers!]

posted 8 years ago by otter
5 replies | jump to latest

Spoilers:

Putting a piece of metal through someone's skull and brain at low speed wouldn't necessarily kill them. Bullets through the head kill because they carry a great deal of force - they shatter bone and send fragments through the brain with great speed, they travel through brain tissue so fast that their passage creates shock waves that disrupt neurons and blood vessels. But a small particle traveling at low speed would break the membranes that encapsulate the brain and cause the leakage of cereberospinal fluid, and would break any neurons or blood vessels they travel through, but even that might not be fatal if it missed the major blood vessels and someone stopped the leakage of fluid and gave antibiotics to treat the infection that would result from a foreign object in the brain. But Magneto's coin seemed to go down the center of the brain, if it passed right through the longitudinal fissure it might not do much damage at all.

They could easily bring Shaw back.

“Seventy-seven courses and a regicide, never a wedding like it!

[–] Otter (24464) 8 years ago

And it's still true! Bwahahahahaaa!!!

[–] Heisenberg (6730) 6 years ago

Otter, that is one genius theory!

I also have a good one for his comeback, it's taken from "Loaded weapon".
Shaw just comes into frame and some evil xmen asks him "hey, I thought you were dead!"
and Shaw replies "Isn't this the sequel?"

[–] PaladinNJ (21781) 2 years ago

That wasn't a small particle. He sliced through his brain and probably cut it in half.

[–] Otter (24464) 2 years ago

Okay, here's a picture of the coin. It's a quarter, or is the size of a quarter, about an inch around and flat, and it's traveling at low speed, creating no shock waves and not shattering bone, which in a normal bullet hit also cause shock waves in the delicate neuronal tissue. So say the coin passes through the brain at slow speed, and goes down the center of the skull... depending on the path of the coin, it'd Yes, it would slice through any neurons it passed and would do damage, but depending on where it went, the damage would be localized, and the chief danger would be from infection, and any bleeding that would happen. But people survive brain bleeds all the time (hemorrhagic strokes), and most of the brain's largest blood cells are away from the path the coin seemed likely to take. Now it's hard to be sure exactly where the coin went, but if it just went through the center of the head, then it might go through the longitudinal fissure or the corpus callosum, and humans can live with a severed corpus callosum, which is just a relay center between the halves of the brain. So unless Magneto took the trouble to move the coin around the inside of the skull a bit, and avoid the straight path we seemed to see, Shaw would have the potential to survive.

https://cdn3.whatculture.com/images/2016/09/ddb0f036c3d681a8-600x338.jpg

Another flaw is that Magneto can only control the path of the coin, he can't make the human he's directing the coin at hold still. So unless there's a second force holding Shaw's head in place, all the coin would do is push him over.

[–] Otter (24464) 2 years ago

Hey! A couple of days after I reply, look what popped up on Bored Panda!

https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/amazing-inspiring-medical-cases-6-64e4ac1889af7__700.jpg

https://www.boredpanda.com/amazing-inspiring-medical-cases/?cexp_id=75744&cexp_var=16&_f=featured&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

Apparently the guy showed up at the ER, saying that his head had hurt for two days, and he had no idea how the nail got there. So yes, penetrating injuries to the skull aren't always fatal, or aren't immediately fatal, if the penetrating object misses large blood vessels and doesn't send skull fragments rocketing through the neurons. I think we shall take my point as proven.