I first became aware of the notion of the “touch of death” as a teenager – after watching Uma Thurman as the Bride finally kill Bill using the five-point-palm exploding-heart technique. More recently, news has broken that the death of political prisoner, Alexei Navalny, may have been a result of a single, forceful blow to the chest – apparently a trademark of the KGB.

Fact or fiction? These propositions are at best grossly speculative. But it is indeed possible for the heart to stop following trauma, through disruption at a particular point in its cycle of “lub-dub” beating. This phenomenon is named commotio cordis – literally “agitation of the heart”.

The body region of interest here is the precordium, the area of the chest wall lying directly above the heart. This region is found in most of us on our left-hand side, with the heart’s apex pointing towards the left nipple. Within this area, you can feel for the heartbeat. This is best when it is beating forcefully after exercise or exertion, as many........

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