Someone's in for a bad day, I bet

[pepperbelly]

Since this is in Basic I will not comment on backstories or photoshop but respond to the OP. I have been fortunate enough to see them on a number of occasions here in Oz and in the Coral triangle.

Here is some info from an Australian Governement website so the information is reliable Blue ringed octopus - AIMS

Here is another website for fun


More appropriate general statistics
Australia’s Dangerous Animals: The Truth About Deaths.

I really love Aussies!

 

[EricTheDood]

DEFINITELY not real. I'm an Aussie. It's too big to be a Blue Ring

I've seen specimens big enough to eat a horse.

 

[Steyr]

so you are lying there, eyes wide open (can't even blink) with your hearing working and your heart stopped. So if you get bitten (usually within seconds), then you can lay there with the paramedics pumping your heart while the bystanders tell them to stop because you are dead. After about 20 minutes of your blood pumping (usually by CPR) you wake up and start breathing. If it is a Blue Ring (doesn't look like one), then this photo is taken in the hand of a corpse.

I don't think that's quite right. The toxin paralyses your voluntary muscles, preventing movement and breathing (your diaphragm doesn't work), However the heart is an involuntary muscle and it keeps working. So you effectively suffocate. But if someone can keep pumping air into your lungs (mouth to mouth) then once the toxin wears off you're fine.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I don't think that's quite right. The toxin paralyses your voluntary muscles, preventing movement and breathing (your diaphragm doesn't work), However the heart is an involuntary muscle and it keeps working. So you effectively suffocate. But if someone can keep pumping air into your lungs (mouth to mouth) then once the toxin wears off you're fine.

Yes that is consistent with the information the Australian First Aid Registered Training Organizations are required to teach.

As with all seemingly unconscious casualties be careful what is said around them. They may hear and understand. Think how awful it would be to hear someone say "you may as well not bother.. they won't make it anyway" I reprimanded one of my crew for making a comment like that near a patient I was getting ready to evacuate by chopper back in my Ambulance Unit Chief days. In that case the patient did survive and he turned up at the station a number of months later demanding to spend some time "With the moron who said I wasn't going to make it!" He recognized my voice and I was sure hoping the paramedic in question stayed away until I I reassured him that I had dealt with the matter and the offense wouldn't be repeated.