Grannie - I really don't want to get off on the wrong foot here, and fall out with other posters, but you really don't seem to be able to take any opinions that differ from yours at all, do you?
I suggest that you go back and read what I posted originally. And I'll repeat - arterial air embolism, if injected into an artery, goes peripherally. If I inject air into your femoral artery, it goes down your leg. Injecting it into a carotid artery would send it to the brain and cause a stroke (often temporary as the air bubble breaks up then gets absorbed). The main ways that air embolism can cause cardiac arrest are if the air gets into the coronary arteries at the time of surgery (which is why so much trouble is taken to evacuate the air as I said), or if the air is injected into a vein in truly massive quantities, enough to cause pulmonary air embolism. And I mean LARGE quantities of air. That air would have to pass all the way through the lungs into the left side of the heart, then some MAY enter the coronaries.
The only other situation where a large air embolus could get into the coronaries would be if the person had a patent atrial septal defect, with a large right-to-left shunt. But here we're talking highly unusual and specific abnormalities.
It is NOT a simple matter of injecting a syringe full of air into a vein, as you see in the movies. If you've ever worked in a hospital and seen the number of IV lines that run out, with air running into the vein, then you would know that this is NOT an easy thing to achieve.
OK - sorry if we seem to be getting a bit carried away and off-topic here. But if injecting air into a vein could cause cardiac arrest so easily, do you really think that IV lines would be left to nursing staff including student nurses to administer? I doubt it...
Maybe I'd better limit my comments more - there are some who may have missed the points of my posts. And many who really don't want to consider that while GBC certainly seems to be guilty on the evidence we have, there HAS to be room for other possibilities. His lawyers will make sure of that, whether we like it or not.
OK - I'll be quiet now...:banghead: