A Game of Thrones - TV Show Discussion Thread

[Dr Strangelove]

I just noticed that everywhere I typed the word "Netflix" it became a shopping hot link via "SkimWords". Is this a new 'poly thing?

[Hauldren Collider]

Yep I got mine a few days ago from Amazon. Came with blu-ray, dvd, and amazon instant video for the same price as a regular blu ray set.

[Dr Strangelove]

Amazing!!!! The GOT season 2 came out on DVD a mere 9 days ago. I've had it reserved on my Netflix list for nearly a year, but when the DVD came out and Netflix began offering it the GOT season 2 discs were of course listed as "very long wait". My jaw dropped to the floor then when 2 days ago GOT season 2 disc 1 appeared as "shipped" in my queue. I just finished watching GOT season 2 disc 1, the rest of the discs aren't listed as being delayed. I'm moving them up on my queue in the hopes that I can get them shipped before they become delayed.

[Dr Strangelove]

A quick google search gives answers of three weeks to a month to starve to death if you are hydrated. It's not like Bran was burning very many calories from normal activity and the broth and sugar water should have helped if they could get him to swallow it. They do mention that he was extremely frail and skinny when he woke up so starvation wasn't ignored.

So I suppose the question is can you keep an unconscious person hydrated and psuedo fed after a fashion. Can yiu trigger swallowing reflexes without choking them? Would that even happen if you are in a comma? I have no idea.

No, the part of the swallowing mechanism that closes the airway off is under concious control, so if you pour liquid down the gullet of an unconcious person it goes into their lungs.

[Hauldren Collider]

Leaches are used today to remove blood from people with certain conditions (haemachromatosis for one). We also use other invertebrates to remove necrotic flesh from wounds on occasion. It works out as much cheaper than other options, because it is so quick compared to surgery etc.

That's not how they are using the leeches though. They use it to cure minor ailments, a la the four humors theory.

[Patroklos]

A quick google search gives answers of three weeks to a month to starve to death if you are hydrated. It's not like Bran was burning very many calories from normal activity and the broth and sugar water should have helped if they could get him to swallow it. They do mention that he was extremely frail and skinny when he woke up so starvation wasn't ignored.

So I suppose the question is can you keep an unconscious person hydrated and psuedo fed after a fashion. Can yiu trigger swallowing reflexes without choking them? Would that even happen if you are in a comma? I have no idea.

[Dr Strangelove]

A couple decades ago some centers were using leeches to clean certain types of skin ulcers, but there are safer ways of doing that now.

[Krill]

Leaches are used today to remove blood from people with certain conditions (haemachromatosis for one). We also use other invertebrates to remove necrotic flesh from wounds on occasion. It works out as much cheaper than other options, because it is so quick compared to surgery etc.

[Dr Strangelove]

It depends upon the cause and the treatment. In Bran Stark's case it's possible that there may have been some self-limited intracranial bleeding and / or cerebral swelling that subsided over time and allowed cerebral function to resume. My point was that without fluid intake his circulating volume would have decreased, his kidneys would have shut down and he would have died from the effects of hypovolemia and the accumulation of toxins.

[Hauldren Collider]

Uh, yes. Why?

He fell backwards from a height that looked to be about 2 stories and landed on his back. Such a fall could easily have resulted in brain contusions. Since his legs don't work but his arms do he apparently also sustained an injury to his spinal cord in the thoracic area.

Ah, thanks. Makes sense. Question, though--how often do people recover from comas?

[Krill]

...HC, do you have any understanding of medicine?

[Hauldren Collider]

I was trying to be charitable.

Speaking of "medically less than plausible", it greatly annoys me that the doctors use leeches to heal.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Spoiler:

Can't be him. Bran surely would have recognized him.

Spoiler:

Coldhands never has shown his face

[Nikolai]

Benjen is the obvious choice, but he's partly the obvious choice because, well, there are no other obvious choices that would be as meaningful.

Spoiler:

Can't be him. Bran surely would have recognized him.

[Guynemer]

Medically less than plausible?

I was trying to be charitable.