Correction to Acknowledgements page

Suicide and Attempted Suicide: Methods and Consequences

The first half of this document is a list of known errors (and their corrections) found in the hardback edition (c1999) that were fixed in the paperback edition (c2001). The second half is a list of errors/corrections that the publisher declined to fix for the paperback revision, and thus are present in both editions.

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The following errors in the hardback edition have been fixed in the paperback reprint. So, if you have the paperback edition, go on to PART 2

PART 1

Ok, there are two errors-of-fact that I’ve become aware of since publication. One is easy to fix. Page 172: add “respirators” and delete “airline face masks” and add “(generally nitrogen)” in the next line. It goes like this:

CHANGE FROM: “Most medical use of inert gases is for animal euthanasia,(21) however there have been human fatalities from them, too. For example, airline face masks were mistakenly hooked up to inert gas cylinders instead of to oxygen at least ten times during the 1980s in the U.S. The fact that these people died without attracting attention is consistent with non-traumatic death.”

CHANGE TO: “Most medical use of inert gases is for animal euthanasia,(21) however there have been human fatalities from them, too. For example, respirators were mistakenly hooked up to inert gas (generally nitrogen) cylinders instead of to oxygen at least ten times during the 1980s in the U.S. The fact that these people died without attracting attention is consistent with non-traumatic death."

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[The following errors in the first hardback edition have been fixed in the paperback reprint.]

A more significant error (my anatomy mistake) unfortunately shows up on a number of pages in three chapters.

P161 line 2: CHANGE “common carotid (right side)” TO “carotid (both sides)”

Line 3: CHANGE “jugular vein (left side)” TO “jugular veins (both sides)”

Line 4: CHANGE “jugular vein is” TO “jugular veins are”

Line 12 CHANGE “does the jugular vein” TO “do the jugular veins”

Line 15: CHANGE FROM: “Lesser pressure, compressing the jugular but not the carotid, would allow blood into, but not out of, the head. This would result in a swollen, blue-purple head, often leaking blood. If aesthetics are an issue, protecting the left side of the neck decreases compression of the jugular, allowing blood to leave the head, and thus minimizes engorgement of the head with blood.”

TO: “Lesser pressure, compressing the major veins but not the arteries, would allow blood into, but not out of, the head. This would result in a swollen, blue-purple head, often leaking blood. It may also be painful, albeit briefly. If aesthetics are an issue, quick and complete compression of the blood vessels is least likely to leave a gruesome corpse.”

Line 28/29 DELETE “(and, less critically, the left side”)

P198 CHANGE “A cut-throat wound most often causes death by hemorrhage. Severing either of the two carotid arteries on the right side of the neck or the jugular veins on the left will cause fatal blood loss within about 5 minutes. Since blood flows into the head via the carotid, unconsciousness might occur a couple of minutes after cutting it; perhaps a minute or two longer if the jugular veins are sliced instead.”

TO “A cutthroat wound most often causes death by hemorrhage. Severing either the left or right carotid artery or the nearby jugular vein will cause fatal blood loss within about 5 minutes. Since blood flows into the head via the carotids, unconsciousness might occur a couple of minutes after cutting one.”

P204 CHANGE the entire “THROAT” heading FROM: “If you're going to cut your throat, the three major structures that are commonly injured are the carotid artery, the jugular vein and the windpipe. These are all accessible from the front of the neck, but the major blood vessels are partly protected by the sterno-mastoid muscles nearby. (Turn your head to the side and feel them). The large carotid is on the right side under the angle of the jaw (where you can feel your pulse). It's most accessible by cutting in between the trachea and the sterno-mastoid muscle. Completely severing it will cause unconsciousness in a couple of minutes and death in about five. Not pleasant, but fast. Throwing the head back moves the carotids under the sterno-mastoid muscles and may require deeper cuts or limit damage to the trachea or larynx.

“Cutting the jugular veins on the left side of the neck causes death almost as quickly, but you may remain conscious a minute or two longer, since blood continues to enter the head. Similarly unpleasant.

“Cutting into the windpipe is not generally life-threatening unless either it is cut all the way through, or a lot of blood enters it. In fact there is a surgical procedure for cutting a passage into the trachea near the breastbone (tracheotomy) in order to bypass an obstruction to breathing.

“If you insist on cutting your throat, go for either of the major blood vessels: the carotids (on the right side of the neck) or the jugulars (left side of the neck). No extra credit for cutting both. If the trachea is also cut it won't make much difference, but it shouldn't be the target.”

CHANGE TO: “If you're going to cut your throat, the three major structures that are commonly injured are the carotid arteries, the jugular veins and the windpipe. These are all accessible from the front of the neck, but the major blood vessels are partly protected by the sternocleidomastoid and a couple of smaller muscles overlaying them. (Turn your head to the side and feel them). The exterior carotids are on either side under the angle of the jaw (where you can feel your pulse). They’re most accessible by cutting in between the trachea and the sternocleidomastoid. Completely severing a carotid will cause unconsciousness in a couple of minutes and death in about five. Not pleasant, but fast. Turning the head to the side moves the carotids under the sternocleodomastoid muscles and may require deeper cuts or limit damage to the trachea or larynx.

“Cutting a jugular vein without severing a carotid is unlikely. Were it to happen, you would die almost as quickly, but might remain conscious a minute or two longer, since blood would continue to enter the head.

“If you insist on cutting your throat, go for the major blood vessels on the right- and left-front side of the neck. No extra credit for cutting both. If the trachea is also cut it won't make much difference, but it shouldn't be the target.”

P323 line 11/12 CHANGE “jugular vein” TO “jugular veins”

P327 CHANGE FROM “Carotid artery On the right side of your neck, just under the side of the jaw, is your carotid artery. Put your fingers there and gently feel your pulse. It should be quite strong. (If you can't find one, either you're looking in the wrong place or you don't need this book.) The carotid artery carries much of the blood to your brain, which uses around 15% of the entire blood supply of your body.12 Anything which interrupts that blood-flow for more than a few seconds will cause loss of consciousness.

“Jugular vein On the other side of the neck, under the left side of the jaw is the jugular vein, which carries the "used" blood back to the heart. If the jugular is blocked, blood backs up, much like water in a stream that has been dammed. The carotid and jugular can be compressed with just a few pounds pressure; a moderately tightened rope will do nicely. Death occurs within a few minutes. There does not need to be any pressure on the airway (trachea or windpipe), though there often is.“

CHANGE TO: “Carotid artery On the right side of your neck, just under the side of the jaw, is one of your carotid arteries. Put your fingers there and gently feel your pulse. It should be quite strong. (If you can't find one, either you're looking in the wrong place or you don't need this book.) The carotid arteries carry much of the blood to your brain, which uses around 15% of the entire blood supply of your body.(12) Anything which interrupts that blood-flow for more than a few seconds will cause loss of consciousness.

“Jugular vein On both sides of the neck, under the angle of the jaw, are the jugular veins, which carry the "used" blood back to the heart. If the jugulars are blocked, blood backs up, much like water in a stream that has been dammed. The carotids and jugulars can be compressed with just a few pounds pressure; a moderately tightened rope will do nicely. Death occurs within a few minutes. There does not need to be any pressure on the airway (trachea or windpipe), though there often is.”

P329 line 16 CHANGE “artery” TO “arteries”

Line 31/32 CHANGE “right-front side” TO “right- or left-front side”

Line 35 CHANGE “the carotid” TO “a carotid”

P332 line 18 CHANGE “vein” TO “veins”

Line 19 CHANGE “artery” TO “arteries”

P333 line 2 CHANGE “vein” TO “veins”

Line 3 CHANGE “artery” TO “arteries”

P348 line 1 CHANGE “vein” TO “veins”

Line 2 CHANGE “artery” TO “arteries”

P349 line 25 CHANGE “vein” TO “veins”

Line 26 CHANGE “artery” TO “arteries”

888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

PART 2

The following errors are present in both the hardback edition and the paperback reprint.

There is a problem with citations within endnotes: the editor gave

them numbers in the end-of-book references, but no corresponding

numbers in the end-of-chapter notes. Readers should nonetheless, with a little page-flipping and an occasional incantation, be able to figure out which reference goes with which endnote.

However, the following end-of-chapter-note on p56 is STILL missing---they’ve screwed it up twice now---while its associated citations are sitting in the reference notes (chapter 7, reference 67).

p56: missing end-of-chapter-note “b” (existing notes b-f get bumped up one letter—--no other changes needed), goes after the word “lithium” (16th line of text):

new note b: "Lithium is an interesting drug---a simple metal ion like sodium or potassium---that seems to work on bi-polar (manic-depressive) illness for reasons that aren't understood. The effect of lithium on suicide rates is in dispute. [Muller-Oerlinghausen, 1992; Coppen, 1991; Vestergaard, 1991] There's a fascinating study from Texas that claims the rates of suicide, homicide, rape, robbery, burglary, and theft are all significantly lower in counties whose drinking water is high in

lithium. The authors suggest that lithium moderates aggressive

behavior, which is consistent with some other reports, and go on

to suggest adding lithium to municipal (and prison) water

supplies as a means of crime reduction. They may have found a

path to world peace---or to Brave New World. [Schrauzer, 1990]"

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Correction to Acknowledgements page. CHANGE first paragraph TO:

“I owe large debts to the works of Margaret P. Battin, George Howe Colt, Herbert Hendin, and Cyril Polson. I am grateful to them and the many others who have contributed to the suicide literature.”

Also, CHANGE “Virgina” TO “Virginia“.

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Other text corrections:

p13 endnote a: "Morality" should read "Mortality". CHANGE TO: "CDC website, Mortality database <www.wonder.cdc.gov/>" On second thought, perhaps the typo should stay.

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p183, endnote h: CHANGE FROM “For a tube tent” TO “For a tube tent (a cheap emergency shelter used by backpackers)” [This one is my fault---thought everyone knew what a tube tent was. Wrong.]

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p250 Similarly, the original wording here was: "Appendix Table P-

19 is a list of some commonly available substances that are

generally considered non-toxic in acute overdose."

This was edited to: "Ballpoint pen inks, bathtub floating toys,

body conditioners are of the type of commonly available

substances that are generally considered non-toxic in acute

overdose." This is bad grammar and does not make sense---one does not “overdose” on bathtub toys.

Try instead: “Ballpoint pen inks, toothpaste, and latex paint are examples of the large number of commonly available substances that are generally considered non-toxic in acute overdose. (A list of such items can be found on the author’s website, <http://suicidemethods.net>.)"

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p216. The chart rounds off three population figures; prior

and subsequent charts do not. For consistency, either use “260,423,572” “127,118,264” and “133,305,308” OR round off the last three digits on ALL the population charts to the nearest thousand.

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p263 endnote m. Typo’d out the word "of" in "a dangerous

concentration of (denser-than-air) chlorine gas can form."

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p264 endnote x. Use lower case for “Acuminata” in “C.

Acuminata..." (picky, picky)

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p296---wrong typeface. (picky, picky, picky)

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p302 missing ref between 57 and 58.

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p303 table needs separator after “eyebrow”

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p325 table. Only one of the four uses of "unrel." was correctly

replaced by an asterisk. Replace the other three “unrel.” with “*”.

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[The following error has been fixed in the paperback reprint.]

p355 endnote d. Typo’d name misspelled as "Rope" (it’s Rupe) and edit error left: “And now for the best part: the Washington Supreme Court, in a fit of collective idiocy, bought this preposterous notion.”

Should read: "His conviction was overturned by a federal District Court and the ninth circuit Court of Appeals, partially on these preposterous grounds. (There were also issues of prosecutorial misconduct.)"

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p388 Table 25.6 is totally screwed up. It makes no sense as

shown. Let’s see if I can line up columns any better than the publisher did. But no promises: depends on font and size.

Table 25.6 Relationship of Hospitalization time, Deaths [Footnote “f” goes here], and Height of Fall or Jump

----------------------------------------------------------------

Height of Fall or Jump in Stories

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9+ Unknown Total

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[Scalea, 1986]

Number of 29 45 38 29 9 6 5 0 0 - 161

patients

Average hospital 13 14 28 42 42 86 106 - - - 28.5

stay, days

Deaths 0 0 0 3 1 2 2 - - - 8

Per cent

dying* 0 0 0 10 11 33 40 - - - 5

[Reynolds, 1970]

Number of 37 54 31 27 25 0 0 0 0 26 200

patients

Average hospital -

stay, days

Deaths 2 6 3 6 8 - - - - 9 34

Per cent

dying* 5 11 10 22 32 - - - - 35 17

[Lewis, 1965]

Number of NA NA 15 11 7 11 2 1 6 0 53

patients

Average hospital 47

stay, days

Deaths NA NA 5 7 2 10 1 0 6 - 31

Per cent

dying* NA NA 33 64 38 91 50 0 100 - 58

=================================================================

* From the death rates, it appears that medical care improved from 1965 to 1986. However, these studies are not directly comparable because Lewis includes only third-story-and-above jumpers in his data, while Scalea excludes those dead at the scene, dead on arrival, or dead before getting out of the emergency room.

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Various pages: In all of the demographics tables, one can't have "millions" in a heading unless the column is actually in millions. Please delete the heading “pop (millions)” and replace with “Population”. This applies to the table on p 186. In the tables on pp 216, 228, 229, 290, 324, 378, just delete “millions”.

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p403, reference note 4, "Colt, 235" should be a full citation: ”George Colt, The Enigma of Suicide (New York: Summit Books, 1991), 235.”

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p453 There’s a typo and some broken/dead web links.

CHANGE the bottom half of the page FROM: “Other magasites that may also be worth a visit are:

www.emory.edu/MEDWEB (MEDWEB)

www.medlib.iupui.edu/hw/tox (Health-WEB)

www.igm.nlm.nih.gov/index (Medline, Toxline databases, and National Library of Medicine, among other things)

More modest sites are sometimes more useful. Three that are good sources of drug/chemical data are:

(1) www.rxlist.com

(2) www.newcastle.edu.au/department/md/htas/tox0001/htm (more technical than the other two sites)

(3) www.merck.com (Merck Manual; Merck Manual of Geriatrics)"

CHANGE TO: “Other megasites that may also be worth a visit are:

http://www.medweb.emory.edu/MedWeb/ (MEDWEB)

http://www.medlib.iupui.edu/hw/tox (Health-WEB)

http://igm.nlm.nih.gov/ (Medline, Toxline databases, and National Library of Medicine, among other things)

http://www.pitt.edu/HOME/GHNet/GHKR.html (Global Health Resources)

More modest sites are sometimes easier to use. Two that are good sources of drug/chemical data are:

(1) www.rxlist.com

(2) www.merck.com (Merck Manual; Merck Manual of Geriatrics)

The author's website, <http://suicidemethods.net> has additional relevant links and content."

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p445 There is a missing reference note 83 (current notes 83-90 become 84-91): “Van de Krol, ibid, 285-92.”

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p456 it’s "excerpts" not "experts”.

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p471 there is an index entry for "jumping...copycat suicides"

that has no page number. The page number should be 33.

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