I was having a bit of a debate with
someone. They were saying that the final
cause of death was the heart stopping. I
was saying that it was the brain using up
the last of it's oxygen. Obviously there
are many variables that could be involved.
Which is more true? Does a person die
when the heart stops, or when the brain
stops? Obviously if one goes the other
goes, but I always thought that if the
heart stopped that a person would remain
alive until the last of the oxygen was
used up by the brain. I always heard it
was approximately 4 minutes. Anyone care
to offer any information? Thank you in
advance.
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Sean3000
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 06 May 2006 Posts: 35 Location: UK
Posted: 09-11-06 11:08am
This comment has nothing to do with
allergies or asthma. But just for your
information somebody is pronounced dead
when there heart stops beating and when
there eyes do not respond to light.
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Murbay
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 22 Oct 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Wakefield, UK
Correct Answer Posted: 10-22-06 08:07am
The correct answer to this is when the
brain stops which is normally 3 or 4
minutes after the heart stops.
During my 5 years as a medic, I had to
pronounce quite a few people dead when no
doctor was present. Normally the
procedure was that if they were dead on
the scene you did your final checks then
noted the time.
If a person died in your presence, you
gave them a few minutes before doing final
checks then noted the time.
The reason it is the brain and not the
heart is simple, because you can restart a
heart. Think back to first aid lessons,
someone has no breaths and no pulse, means
their heart has stopped so you apply cpr.
Someone can be brought back to life with
cpr or at least it can keep the heart
pumping to feed the brain till they get
proper medical attention.
If the brain stops, the cells start to die
pretty rapidly which is why it is still
possible to bring somone back after being
braindead but they tend to be in a
vegetative state due to the damage done to
the brain. There are not that many
occurences of people being brought back
from braindead as there are heart stopping
which is why death is measured on the
brain rather than the heart.
I had one instance in a hospital with a
woman who had just passed away peacefully
infront of us. After passing, we gave it
a minute before doing preliminary checks
to check if the heart had stopped, it had
so we left her in the room for about 5
minutes while we prepared the paperwork
and waited for braindeath do occur.
5 minutes later we went back in to perform
checks again and pronounce her but half
way through this she sat up and screamed.
It was a true sphincter opening moment
which I think made everybody jump.
She stopped breathing 5 minutes later and
5 minutes after that we wet back, did our
checks and prounounced her dead. Had we
pronounced her when her heart stopped the
first time we would have been 15 minutes
out.
|
Murbay
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 22 Oct 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Wakefield, UK
Correct Answer Posted: 10-22-06 18:28pm
The correct answer to this is when the
brain stops which is normally 3 or 4
minutes after the heart stops.
During my 5 years as a medic, I had to
pronounce quite a few people dead when no
doctor was present. Normally the
procedure was that if they were dead on
the scene you did your final checks then
noted the time.
If a person died in your presence, you
gave them a few minutes before doing final
checks then noted the time.
The reason it is the brain and not the
heart is simple, because you can restart a
heart. Think back to first aid lessons,
someone has no breaths and no pulse, means
their heart has stopped so you apply cpr.
Someone can be brought back to life with
cpr or at least it can keep the heart
pumping to feed the brain till they get
proper medical attention.
If the brain stops, the cells start to die
pretty rapidly which is why it is still
possible to bring somone back after being
braindead but they tend to be in a
vegetative state due to the damage done to
the brain. There are not that many
occurences of people being brought back
from braindead as there are heart stopping
which is why death is measured on the
brain rather than the heart.
I had one instance in a hospital with a
woman who had just passed away peacefully
infront of us. After passing, we gave it
a minute before doing preliminary checks
to check if the heart had stopped, it had
so we left her in the room for about 5
minutes while we prepared the paperwork
and waited for braindeath do occur.
5 minutes later we went back in to perform
checks again and pronounce her but half
way through this she sat up and screamed.
It was a true sphincter opening moment
which I think made everybody jump.
She stopped breathing 5 minutes later and
5 minutes after that we wet back, did our
checks and prounounced her dead. Had we
pronounced her when her heart stopped the
first time we would have been 15 minutes
out.
