Comment by kristianp

Comment by kristianp 15 hours ago

3 replies

From the wikipedia article: > Turing may have inhaled cyanide fumes from an electroplating experiment in his spare room

How would he have put himself quietly to bed if he had gotten a fatal dose of cyanide in the spare room where the electroplating was taking place? Wouldn't there be very fast respiratory distress?

zdragnar 13 hours ago

A highly acute dose could kill in seconds, but a lower dose can cause confusion, headaches, dizziness and more prior to inducing a coma and death.

It is not outside the realm of possibility that he became confused and in pain, decided to lie down to sleep it off, then died in his sleep. My own father in law suffered a significant blow to the head and, despite knowing all the signs of a concussion and what to do about them, got up and slept it off- the very last thing one should do. He was simply too confused to do anything else.

His story had a happier ending than Alan's, but it goes to show that the accidental death theory isn't implausible.

  • tormeh 10 hours ago

    > While it is common advice that someone who is concussed should not be allowed to fall asleep in case they go into a coma, for general cases this is not supported by current evidence.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concussion

    • zdragnar 4 hours ago

      I don't know about the coma bit, but there's a comedian whose early career was largely defined by having slept off a concussion and waking up with a stutter.

      It may or may not lead to a coma, but I surely wouldn't let someone sleep one off immediately following the injury if I can help it.