So sorry to hear about your dad, Katerina.

Your question isn't easy to answer because we don't have all the details, and even if we did, we could probably not give you a definitive yes or no.

One thing you have to remember is that humans hold on to life with such tenacity that people seldom believe they are going to die. One must draw distinctions here between the elderly, who come to accept the inevitability of death, and the young, who know it's there but don't really believe it's there for them.

I presume your dad had a fall, and I can talk with some experience of this. I fell about 10m onto the floor when I had a climbing accident 13 years ago. I knew I was likely to fall, and that was a terrible moment, but the fall itself is pretty well lost in my memory because I was knocked unconscious. I woke in agony and could barely breathe due to the damage to my back and ribs. If I had not woken, my dying moment would have been the brief second or so of fear when I knew I might fall. I think I can safely say that once I woke, and found myself alive, my survival instincts kicked in immediately; I knew that my back was sore so the first thing I did was to gasp to my partner that he shouldn't move me.

It is my belief, and this is subjective, that pain, however awful, cannot convince a normal person that death is preferable. I realise that torture victims or chronic pain sufferers might disagree.

In the case of people who suffer trauma sufficient to cause death, I doubt there is often conscious realisation of death. Either they pass out, or think they are passing out. While able to think, I don't believe anyone actually believes he or she will die (but note caveats above).

Katerina, I agree with Pete.

Here is a thought. I got anaesthetised some time ago, a process that stopped the conscious working of my brain as suddenly and completely as a blow to the head. I woke when the nurse asked me whether I would like a coffee or tea. I replied no thanks; I had to have a procedure that would make this unwise. She said that the procedure had already been done, and would I like some bikkies as well?

I did.

Being knocked unconscious has similar effects. Some time earlier I ate something poisonous that first made me faint, then vomit when I awoke. While I was unconscious there was no awareness. While I was starting to faint the sense of confusion was too great for me to feel any alarm or self-importance. The main discomfort was the vomiting when I awoke.

All very nice, but my point?

If your brain, or even just certain parts of it, are not working, we have no evidence that you are in any way aware of the fact, let alone frightened or in pain.

I am sorry about your father for several reasons, but one thing I am NOT worried about is whether he is suffering at the moment.

Go well, and look after,

Jon

Katerina,

You are entirely welcome. I know that Pete will agree with me that if anything we had to say made you feel even a little better, it would make us both feel a lot better.

All the best,

Jon

The Legend: Of the many stories associated with the guillotine, one theme continues to dominate, receiving comments from historians, scientists and students of urban legend: does a victim's head remain alive, albeit for a small period of time?

Many Historical Accounts: The guillotine was invented as a humane and painless method of execution, one that brought an instant death: could the inventors have been wrong? Plenty of anecdotes have been used by all sides, many of them dating from the French Revolution, one of the guillotine's most prolific periods. Scientists who asked their students to watch and record how many times they blinked (the scientists themselves being guillotined), murderers who tried to speak, and rivals who bit each other while their heads were in a bag; all have been cited at some point. One famous tale concerns Charlotte Corday, the killer of Marat, whose cheek supposedly reddened after the executioner slapped it even though, at that point, she was just a severed head being held up to the crowd.

The Medical Answer: The current medical consensus is that life does survive, for a period of roughly thirteen seconds, varying slightly depending on the victim's build, health and the immediate circumstances of the decapitation. The simple act of removing a head from a body is not what kills the brain, rather, it is the lack of oxygen and other important chemicals provided in the bloodstream. To quote Dr. Ron Wright "The 13 seconds is the amount of high energy phosphates that the cytochromes in the brain have to keep going without new oxygen and glucose" (Cited from urbanlegends.com, no longer extant). The precise post-execution lifespan will depend on how much oxygen, and other chemicals, were in the brain at the point of decapitation; however, eyes could certainly move and blink.

Do You Remain Aware?: This solely technical survival forms only part of the answer; the second question is 'how long does the victim remain aware?' While the brain remains chemically alive, consciousness can cease immediately, caused by the loss of blood pressure or if the victim is knocked unconscious by the force of the decapitating blow. If that weren't to happen immediately, an individual could in theory remain self-aware for part of the thirteen-second period. There is no consistency in this answer, as the precise length of both actual, and practical, survival will vary depending on the victim. Of course, this applies to many forms of swift decapitation, and not just to the victims of the guillotine.

http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/thefrenchrevolution/a/dyk10.htm