STRANGLING: How to Prevent Your Death

I've wanted to write about this for some time, but didn't have the information I needed.  Yesterday I got it. 

I attended a domestic violence luncheon in my hometown and sat next to the keynote speaker, our local assistant district attorney.  A local case was mentioned, where the woman had been strangled to death by her husband. 

I had read somewhere (can't rememner where) that if someone attacks you from the front and is trying to strangle you, their hands are very busy.  It's of no use for us to beat them on the shoulders and head to stop them, since we will get progressively weaker as the blood supply to our brain gets cut off.

However, the good news is that our hands are free and can be used to cut off the blood supply to their brains -- and make them pass out -- by pressing our thumbs on their eyeballs.  Evidently the optical nerve is directly behind the eyeballs.  Pressing on them makes a person faint quickly (30 - 60 seconds). 

What I didn't know was how long it took to strangle a person to death.  The speaker said that it took a full five to seven minutes, as the pressure needs to be maintained -- or the automatic nervous system will take over and revive the person.

This is gruesome, I know, but it's important.  Many victims die after being strangled by their intimate partner.  It's crucial to know that we have a method we can use to protect ourselves.  What I was confused about before was whether a victim would have time to do the eyeball pressure method before blacking out.

Clearly the victim in a strangling attack has the edge -- if he/she can think quickly and begin the eyeball pressure immediately -- before becoming weakened and then unable to do it.

If I even save one life by posting this, it will have been worth it.  However, this post is too late for Christy Melcher, eight months pregnant when she was strangled by her husband, Zach, who also suffocated their ten-month-old son, Jaden (The Sentinel-News of Shelby, Kentucky, March 16, 2006).