The Danger of the Carotid Choke

 

 

California karate instructor killed during class, police say

A 65-year-old karate instructor in California was killed during a class,…

 

ARVIN, Calif. — A 65-year-old karate instructor in California was killed during a class Thursday night, according to the Arvin Police Department.

A witness told authorities that a student was applying a "carotid" hold on the male instructor that had been demonstrated during class. When officers arrived, they found the instructor unresponsive and immediately began CPR.

Moments later, the Kern County Fire Department and Halls Ambulance arrived on the scene and attempted to revive the instructor. The instructor was pronounced dead at around 9:20 p.m.

 

Ed Sumner Part of why I don’t allow them on anyone over 40. Break some plaque lose in that artery and it is “instant stroke.”

 

 

Of course that brings a story to mind.

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The carotid choke was not part of the Isshinryu I was trained it.

 

I was a new black belt going into the locker room to change. When I entered senior instructor Joe Brague (Goshin Jutsu) was talking to some of his students. Suddenly he turned to me and asked “Smith, could you help me out I want to show my students something.” And of course I went over, I recall he grabbed my neck, the next thing I knew I was coming around laying on the floor. He said “You’ll be ok, I just wanted to explain to them how the carotid artery choke works.

 

That was a new one on me, and I began to seek it out, mostly on the magazines from a variety of articles.

 

What I read it worked by the pinching of the carotid artery shutting off the blood flow to the brain, And that could cause a black out before you could count 1,2,3,4,5,6 to yourself. But when it was released the blood flow continued and you regained consciousness.

 

From the magazines I worked out about 4 or 5 ways to do it. I was at that time just teaching youth and did not want kids to know it, beyond the general knowledge that if you have to know when to go crazy on an attacker, anytime they grab your throat was the time to go all out.

 

Then I was attending a summer camp (the attended were not Isshinryu) and asked  to give a clinic, and decided these techniques would be an interesting topic. But when I began to show them, the camp director became very agitated and made me stop. So he suggested a different topic. Not explaining to me why this was so.

 

Years later one of my seniors showed me a different way to enter that lock. And I am sure there are more too.

 

Eventually I began training adults, and one of my students was a surgeon. Privately describing this to him he explained what actually happened. He explained all the magazines and books where I had read about this were wrong. What the carotid choke actually does is it stops the heart from beating, and that is what leads to unconsciousness. The blood flow to the brain if pinched off does not cause unconsciousness. The secondary blood vessels supply more than enough blood to keep the brain awake.

 

He further explained in neck surgery the carotid artery is often clamped off, closing it for blood. And the surgery proceeds with the patient conscious through the procedure. He then proved his point to me most dramatically. His fingers pinched off both my carotid arteries and I remained conscious for a count of 20.

 

In fact what happens is that when pressed, the carotid sinus signals the heart that the blood pressure spiked and stops the heart to lower the blood pressure. That and the body had carotid sinuses in several places not just the neck, all for the same purpose.

 

I have heard that for older individuals there is risk of plaque breaking off leading to stroke. That and at one time this was thought to be a more humane way for police to control a violent individual. But what they found out was most often that individual was attempting to kill the officer and that often meant when established they would not release the lock leading to undesirable consequences.

 

I explained all of this to my senior students, but it never became part of our practice, I deemed it most problematical. I just wanted them to be aware of what could happen and learn how to neutralize those situations.