Dumbstruck... or should that be tongue-tied?

So this woman bites her boyfriend’s tongue off – oh excuse me, the front third of his tongue off (got to be accurate, right?) – because she’s upset at not being pregnant. Thus far, kind of plausible. I mean, while it’s not something I would do, I can just about concede that the woman might have been frustrated. Okay, REALLY frustrated. (Good thing she didn’t bite off anything more vital than his tongue, or he might have been as upset at being unable to father any children as she was at not being pregnant.)

Anyhow... all that apart, what really bypassed my comprehension was the fact that the boyfriend, Mr Coghill, as reported in the news item, “fell asleep while the pain subsided but was woken by Davies biting his elbow”. The man had part of his tongue bitten off, but did he react in a normal fashion (like panicking, yelling in pain, trying to escape, calling the police or an ambulance)? No, he fell asleep instead.

Think about it. He had his tongue bitten off by his girlfriend, and he fell asleep “as the pain subsided”. He only woke when he felt his girlfriend biting his elbow. (Why? I wish the report had given an explanation for that too. Also, was his girlfriend a Rottweiler instead of a human being?)

Mind-boggling though Mr Coghill's resilience was, I couldnt help wanting to ask him how long it took for the pain to "subside" - surely it's a more serious injury than, say, biting your own tongue by mistake... and even that is far more painful for far longer than you would think!

Come to think of it, I have the same question for the reporter/editor of the story - Just how long did it take for the pain to subside and enable Mr Coghill to get some zzzzzzzs? Curious minds want to know.