rationalskepticism.org

Spearthrower wrote:

Sara4321 wrote:

Spearthrower wrote:

Sara4321 wrote:

That's what the news sources were saying. The tampons up his nose caused him to suffocate in his sleep.

"News sources" - let's not pretend that these sources are in any way, shape or form meant to be official reports arbitrating the cause of death - it's sensationalist tripe.

Rather, as even your sources expressly note, the man literally drank alcohol and took sleeping tablets (like this had nothing to do with his death!!), as well as shoved tampons up his nose.

So remind me how you get from that to 'sleep with a blocked nose you will die of suffocation' because it looks like utter nonsense to me.

The pathologist said the tampons contributed to his asphyxiation.

No kidding?

I don't think it really takes any expertise in diagnostic medicine to know that shoving things in to block your breathing holes will thereby make it hard to impossible to breathe.

How then does this amount to news?

Regardless, this is not remotely equivalent to having a blocked nose in terms of mucus, is it?

Sara4321 wrote: If humans switch to mouth breathing during sleep when their nose is blocked, how could his nose being blocked have played any role in his death?

Because it's a euphemism?

Because when you're 'blocked up', it's not tantamount to, equivalent to, or in any way analogous to being strangled of oxygen. You can still breathe, even with difficulty, and of course, you can still breathe through your mouth.

However, if you have bad apnea and decide to mix sleeping pills with alcohol then shove products designed specifically to absorb liquid and thereby expand to present a near perfect block between the inside and outside - it's really quite a different story than congestion, so the contention that "If you sleep with a blocked nose you will die of suffocation" isn't at all justified by this completely irrelevant case. It's basically a non-sequitur.