Scientists looking closer at what happens when body dies; edge closer to new understanding

[SonOfTheGods]

Scientists are stretching the boundaries of understanding what happens as the body dies - and learning more about ways to perhaps interrupt the process, which takes longer than we might suppose.

 

Death is the final outcome for 100 percent of patients. But there's growing evidence that revival is possible for at least some patients whose hearts and lungs have stopped working for many minutes, even hours. And brain death - when the brain irreversibly ceases function -- is also proving less open and shut.

For decades, doctors have recorded cases where people immersed in very cold water have been revived after hours have gone by. Normally, brain cells start dying within a few minutes after the heart stops pumping oxygen.

Many studies have found that hypothermia protects the brain by decreasing its need for oxygen and staving off cell death. Body cooling has become common for many patients after cardiac arrest.

 

However, cooling more a few degrees below normal temperature can also cause cell damage.

Cardiologists are still tinkering to find the best approach. Two recent studies presented at the American Heart Association's scientific meeting in Dallas in November tried to see whether early cooling by paramedics after they get a heart restarted is helpful (it didn't seem affect survival or brain damage) or whether cooling to 91.4 degrees Fahrenheit or 96.8 degrees during the first day in the hospital brings better results (again, not much difference).

Then there's the issue of how long to perform CPR. One 2012 study found the median duration in hospitals was 20 minutes for patients that didn't survive; 12 minutes for those who did. The AHA recommends bystanders keep performing CPR until emergency medical services arrive.

 

A Japanese study presented at the AHA meeting, based on six years of data on cardiac arrest survival across Japan, concluded it is worthwhile to continue CPR for 38 minutes or longer and still have a chance to avoid major brain damage.

Defining brain death is becoming more complex as researchers find signs of activity in both human and animal subjects whose brain waves at first show they've "flat-lined" to the point that there is no brain function. While some doctors use the EEG as a final check for signs of life in the brain, most rely on a series of reflex and respiration tests given over several hours to determine brain death.

Scientists at the University of Montreal reported in September on the case of one Romanian patient who was in an extreme deep coma after treatment with a powerful anti-epileptic drug. Although the electroencephalogram (EEG) showed no activity in the man's cortex (the master processor of the brain), there was activity in the hippocampus, the region responsible for memory and learning.

The Montreal team, which reported their findings in the journal PLOS One, recreated the same coma state in 26 cats, and observed the same type of oscillations being generated in the hippocampus of each one.

 

Although the clinical determination of brain death in a hospital relies on more than a flat EEG, the Montreal study is one of many that suggest the criteria may need to be changed. And it points to the possibility that greater use of medically-induced deep coma to help brain-injured people recover may be possible.

Just how conscious the brain remains after cardiac arrest is frequently debated and researched. Various studies of cardiac arrest survivors shows many experience profound mental or emotional change. About 20 percent of survivors say they heard or saw something while they were clinically dead.

 

During the AHA meeting, Dr. Sam Parnia, head of intensive care at Stony Brook University Hospital in New York, reported early results of a 25-hospital study of how frequently cardiac arrest survivors see or hear things while their hearts are stopped. Of 152 survivors interviewed, 37 percent said they had recollections from the unconscious period. Only two recalled actually seeing events and one described any events that could be verified. None saw images mounted in the treatment room as part of the experiment.

 

Still, there's evidence that dying brains can remain active. In August, researchers at the University of Michigan reported on brain studies of rats dying from induced cardiac arrest and suffocation. They found that within the first 30 seconds after death, all the rats displayed a surge of brain activity. The rodents' brains showed consciousness that exceeded levels normally found in the animals when they're awake.

 

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/science-tech/scientists-looking-closer-at-what-happens-when-body-dies

 

[SonOfTheGods]

This is how it starts:

 

then suddenly, a tech says:

 

"he just bit me.."

 

ZOMBIE!

[RongzomFan]

In August, researchers at the University of Michigan reported on brain studies of rats dying from induced cardiac arrest and suffocation.

 

[Nungali]

“Caught in a raging storm, (a ) 35-year-old paraglider had been sucked up to a height of 32,000ft - higher than Mount Everest.


She survived lightning, pounding hailstones as big as tennis balls, temperatures as low as minus 50c and oxygen deprivation. She came down to earth covered in ice and gasping for air - but alive.


Doctors feared she might have suffered brain damage - but apart from frostbite and bruising she was given a clean bill of health. During her 80-minute ordeal under the span of her paraglider, the German adventurer was taken so high that she passed out for nearly 40 minutes.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-436584/Amazing-escape-paraglider-sucked-32-000ft-storm.html

 

40 mins @ 50* below and less oxygen than would kill someone at the top of Everest in 10 mins.

 

PS. when is death ? I did a paper on this somewhere - fingernails and hair can keep growing quiet some time after 'death'.

Edited December 21, 2013 by Nungali

[ThisLife]

*

 

Scientists, like everyone else, will have their view on what this universal experience of 'death', is.

 

In a very real way, it is the ultimate mystery for man,.... because it is the gate through which everyone passes, but no one has ever returned to tell us about. (And of course I am aware of the myriad testimonies of Near Death Experiences. But thinking about them a bit more deeply, the very first word says all that is necessary on that count, doesn't it.)

 

So, we all choose the explanation that appeals most to our sensibilities. Some scientists may choose an idea like you've outlined above. Me,... I happen to like most this one below by Richard Sylvester. I guess it just suits my nature :

 

*

 

*

 

 

Last night I dreamt that I was having dinner in a restaurant with an old friend. We asked for the bill but before it came I woke up. Did my friend have to pay my share of the bill ?

 

It is easy to see that the question about my dream is absurd. It is the same with the question "What happens to me after death ?" The question dissolves when it is seen that I am a dreamed character. Then it is seen that there is no `me' who dies, no `after' because time is created only in the dreamed mind and no `death' because death is simply the awakening from the dream.

 

The mind cannot imagine its own annihilation. Faced with the appearance of death in the dream, the mind creates stories about its own continued existence after death. All of these stories are like answers to the question "Who pays the restaurant bill of the dreamer who wakes up before the bill arrives ?"

 

We are all familiar with so many of these stories. Most offer some variation of reward for a life well-lived, (however that is conceived), and punishment for evil doing. They are both seductive and intimidating, alternately promising us spiritual riches and threatening us with dire consequences.

 

But in liberation it is seen that there is no separate individual before death, so the individual's continuation after death is hardly a problem – it becomes irrelevant. In practice what this means is that generally, when liberation is seen, concerns about death cease to bother us and stories about an after-life cease to interest us. This leaves more attention free to enjoy whatever is happening right now.

 

I like the words of Ramesh Balsekar on death. “What does death ultimately mean? It means the end of the struggle of daily living. It means the end of duality.”

Edited December 21, 2013 by ThisLife

[SonOfTheGods]

 

 

PS. when is death ? I did a paper on this somewhere - fingernails and hair can keep growing quiet some time after 'death'.

False. Optical illusion:

 

http://www.snopes.com/science/nailgrow.asp

[Nungali]

Thanks ( I have one from you now )

 

I also believe that cell reproduction continues sometime after death as well ???

 

The aim of my article (which I now have to find and correct ... thanks a lot ) is to look at how we define the 'moment of death' and when and what is the limit on reviving someone.