Why do people die from very severe fevers?

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You could do SPC, spontaneous pig combustion

Or

SAC, Spontaneous ardvark combustion

Or

SRT, spontaneous rat combustion.

 

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How do you propose that a dropped cigarette or match caused burns from the inside out? (That's what the doctor said).

 

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How did the doctor know that?

 

Took a biopsy. If there is more severe burn damage on the inner layers than the outer layers, logically the fire (or simply heat) came from within first.
There's nothing else that could cause a person nowhere near an ignition source, cigarette etc. to suddenly be on fire.

 

Maybe he was getting too old too fast and dried up like fertilizer dust, and had a sort of controlled explosion from within.

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He was probably dehydrated! The old chap needed to hydrate himself!

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There is no such thing as a biopsy test that tests for "burns."

 

No, but the doctor could've taken a skin sample and found that the deeper layers of tissue were more severely burnt hinting at a source of heat that originated from inside the body.

I'd also like to ask if enzymes are denatured by ROS/reactive chemicals as easily as heat.

 

To be fair, if the fire had actually started on the inside, there is a high chance the poor bastard would have died from a collapsed lung/massive internal damage/etc as the fluid internal to the body turned to steam and built up pressure... I mean, the body is pretty darn good at keeping stuff inside inside and stuff outside outside...

 

I don't know why people die of severe fevers either, but I can tell you I once had a lung infection, that we took for typhus until I checked into a hospital. I had a temperature of 106 degrees intermittently for two or three days, or more (who knows?). I could not think! Just incomplete phrases would repeat themselves endlessly in my head like a scratched LP record. I slept quite a lot, and every time I woke I was astonished to discover that I was still alive. Not pleased, not thankful, just rather surprised and somewhat confused. How was this possible? I asked myself.

We have heard of the five stages of death, but I had none of that. Just freezing cold as I lie under a quilt in an 86-degree room (in the tropics) and not enough mental coherence to have any hope...


...but I got better!

[video=youtube;AYaSdIkVij8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYaSdIkVij8[/video]

 

Proteins begin to denature at 105.8 F, so you're certainly lucky.

 

Still haven't answered my question as to whether ROS/reactive oxidizing chemicals denature enzymes as readily as heat is supposed to.

 

Obviously, this unfortunate man was hit by one of those "Oh my God Particles" that Sylwester Kornowsky was raving about. Wow! I think I just connected the dots.

Sometimes I miss Prof Irwin Corey.