How small can a fatal embulism be?
824371
An embolism in even a very tiny, capillary sized, blood vessel can kill a person, if it is in a key location.\n\nAn embolism is caused by a blockage of an artery or vein by a small part of the body.   Most commonly this is plague that builds up in the blood vessel.  A thrombus happens when a blood clot forms that blocks a key blood vessel.  However, if a clot forms at one point and then travels to another part of the body it can form an embolism there.  Fat cells can also be responsible for an embolism, but only something like plague builds up on the walls of the blood vessels and slowly decreases the size of the blood vessel.\n\nThe key areas where an embolism can be fatal are in the lungs, the heart or the brain where it can cause an ischemic stroke.  Most often an artery is affected, but it can happen in a vein.  Since someone dies of a stroke every 3 minutes this can be a big problem.\n\nThe brain and some of the nervous tissue around the heart can be very sensitive to pressure.  In the case of an embolism the blood flow to surrounding tissue is blocked.  When this happens the tissue could be starved of oxygen and nutrients killing it.  Or the building pressure behind the clot can put too much pressure on the area and cause damage.\n\nBRAIN:  Brain damage often causes bleeding and the pressure put on the brain by this can lead to death.  The skull protects the brain but it also keeps the pressure inside.  This is why brain swelling is so dangerous.  In a few rare cases surgeons can remove a piece of the skull to relieve this pressure, but often the problem is too deep inside the brain for this to work.  It doesn’t have to be a major artery or vein that gets clogged, all it requires is that the blood vessel be in a sensitive area, or so deep inside the brain that the pressure can’t be relieved.\n\nHEART:  In the case of the heart an embolism can block the blood vessels that serve the nerves on the heart or the muscles.  If a nerve is killed then the heart could stop receiving its timing pulse.  The heart can go erratic or even go into arrest (a heart attack), resulting in death.  If heart muscle dies then it can’t be replaced by the body.  In the case of someone who is overweight their heart has had to swell to deal with the extra blood flow required and the extra blood pressure needed to circulate the blood through out the body.  Such hearts are overstrained and weak.  If a little too much heart muscle is lost or just damaged then it can be enough to send it on a downward spiral leading to death.\n\nLUNG:  An embolism in the lung can be very painful and dangerous, but it is fatal in only 26% of cases.  A pulmonary embolism can be fatal when it works against an existing heart or lung problem.\n\nAccording to Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embolism\n"In medicine, an embolism occurs when an object (the embolus, plural emboli) migrates from one part of the body (through circulation) and cause(s) a blockage (occlusion) of a blood vessel in another part of the body.\n\nThis can be contrasted with a "thrombus" which is the formation of a clot within a blood vessel, rather than being carried from elsewhere.\n\nAn embolus landing in the brain from either the heart or a carotid artery will likely cause an ischemic stroke."\n\nAccording to Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke\n"A stroke, also known as cerebrovascular accident (CVA),[1] is an acute neurologic injury in which the blood supply to a part of the brain is interrupted. That is, stroke involves sudden loss of neuronal function due to disturbance in cerebral perfusion. This disturbance in perfusion is commonly arterial, but can be venous.\n\nThe part of the brain with disturbed perfusion no longer receives adequate oxygen. This initiates the ischemic cascade which causes brain cells to die or be seriously damaged, impairing local brain function. Stroke is a medical emergency and can cause permanent neurologic damage or even
627139
Depend on if you are the person dying or not.\n\nFunniest way I have read quite a while back was a ?Mexican f***ing a chicken in a small crevasse. However whilst he was doing that the rock above him moved, slipped down and he and the chicken were killed. The dude was found trousers down at his feet with the chicken still 'attached'.....
426679
Technically if done right the person would never die. There is nothing fatal to small cuts, especially if there is little or no blood involved. A person can survive losing up to 30% of their blood, any amount beyond that would result in death if not replenished quickly. The average person has 7 liters of blood so you can image it would be a quite substantial amount, roughly 2.1 liters that you'd have to lose to die. I am bored and will do some math for you, I am guessing that a paper cut releases approximately 1ml of blood on average. That would be 2100 cuts. But then again not all paper cuts bleed, and it also depends a bunch on the physical level of the person being cut, if they are older they may have trouble developing clots and may be done in by 1/4 as many cuts due to uncontrollable bleeding. I advice not trying this out as you are almost guaranteed to get some sort of infection even if the cuts do not harm you.
498384
Breaking off a piece of the xiphoid process is not likely to be fatal.  Painful, yes.  Dangerous, quite possibly.  There is the risk that it could puncture a lung or cause a laceration on the liver, but it's not going to result in "instant death" as others have indicated.  If the piece is broken, but not displaced a physician may determine that the best treatment is to leave it alone and allow it to heal on its own.\n\nRegardless, it should be evaluated by a medical professional.
615787
One real BIG one or a million little tiny ones.\n\nIts impossible to say.
879120
Low however it can happen
81143
He is not critical. However, if any person dies and it is related directly to other persons harm, then the law states he may be charged with involuntary homicide. The same holds true for an automobile accident or anything that may take the life of another human being. I personally, do not think this attorney will die as a result of the injury sustained from this incident. It was a very unfortunate accident.
1009756
some will kill you . so the answer would be no.
603743
sorry but that's tiny. poor guy
268734
None. Whilst it may be painful in the short/medium term, the more the merrier, I say.
260633
I dont believe it is fatal but since it does include heart malformations the possibility is there.\n\nHere is a web support group with many answered questions that might help you.\nhttp://www.noonansyndrome.org/home.html
321542
Mythbusters did an episode about this. It is a myth. A penny's terminal velocity and mass is too small to kill a person.
775518
(LOL@The One... you should take that as a compliment to your sensuality m'dear ;) )\n\nWell, the venom of a black widow in it's teeny size can kill a man (under the proper circumstances) but I'd wager that one the size of a dog would be very formidable.  The concentration and volume of the venom would probably cause severe tissue damage and disintegrate the flesh at the point of injection, and would be fatal nearly instantly I would think.\n\nSorry, that's not a very humorous answer, but I'm struggling with trying to find a way to make it so ;)
1173040
I guess it would depend on the facts of the case. Involuntary manslaughter is usually the verdict if the death was some sort of an accident. I was at a Friends house one time, he was cleaning a gun that went off accidentally. It shot another friend of mine thru the leg, but it was an accident. Granted he wasn't practicing ideal firearm safety. If it was accidental the ten years would be enough. Hard to say not knowing the facts.
432602
Smaller than a big egg, but bigger than a tiny one.
822343
They can die from this disease.
1180684
Very little, I think.