How long can you live for when you rupture your brachiocephalic vein?

In the field this is presents a challenge. If the first responder can control bleeding (internal, external) until the patient is in the operating room, a good vascular surgeon can save this one, so it's not necessarily instantly nor universally fatal.

The answer to this question depends on the amount of blood loss. Complete severing of the subclavian, jugular or either inominate with no control whatsoever results in massive blood loss. I'd say you have max 1-3 minutes before mortality. However, anything that controls bleeding increases that time, and I would not say this injury 100% lethal.

Some of the factors invovled are:

• Size and margins of the rupture -- large, irregular wounds in vessels are a lot harder to control than small, clean wounds.
• Location -- is it somewhere that you can get to with pressure? Is there an open wound that will facilitate access?
• Is the bleed internal, external or both?
• Is the vessel functionally severed?