If your heart stopped beating during a cardiac arrest, were you dead? Modern resuscitation capabilities force us to reevaluate what it really means to die. For cardiac arrest survivors, the fact that your heart stopped for minutes but you are now alive again profoundly challenges assumptions about the finality of death. Your extraordinary experience crossing the threshold between life and death, and back again, provides unique insight into the mysteries of mortality.
As a survivor, you’ve seen first-hand how the line between life and death has become blurred. Your perspective sheds new light on complex questions about the nature of existence and consciousness. Examining evolving definitions of death in light of advanced medical technologies can help broaden societal understandings of what death means in the context of today’s life-saving capabilities.
Evolving Criteria for Determining Death
Historically, death was defined as the cessation of breathing and heartbeat. However, as we well know, stopped hearts can now be restarted using CPR and a defibrillator. Calling cardiac arrest true death seems illogical when some “come back to life” post-resuscitation.
In the 1960s, brain death emerged as a new criterion, prompted by the advent of organ transplantation. Brain death, marked by irreversible loss of brain function, is now widely accepted in determining death. However, some extraordinary cases, like Jahi McMath who was declared brain dead in 2013 yet still has cardiac function, challenge assumptions about the finality of brain death.
Signs of Life Without Recovery
While brain dead patients are technically dead, their bodies can still exhibit eerie signs of life like spontaneous muscle twitches. Studies indicate up to 68% of brain dead patients demonstrate such Lazarus reflexes. Seeing a brain dead loved one move their limbs can fuel false hopes for grieving families. But these involuntary reflexive spasms do not indicate any possibility of recovering brain activity.
Ambiguous Outcomes Avoid Binary Portrayal
On TV dramas, outcomes tend toward binary results – patients either die or are saved. Real clinical outcomes are often more ambiguous, with quality of life impacted in complex ways. Resuscitation may restart the heart, yet leave some patients severely cognitively or physically impaired. One study found over 30% of cardiac arrest survivors suffered moderate to severe cognitive decline post-resuscitation. Knowing these kinds of outcomes may influence a patient’s wishes regarding resuscitation options.
Technology Reshaping Concept of Death
Medical advances raise profound ethical questions about the nature of death itself. Technologies like cryonics aim to preserve “dead” bodies for future revival – requiring a radical redefinition of what constitutes death. Examining where life ends also surfaces spiritual questions about the nature of human consciousness. Does our essence or soul persist beyond physical death? There are no straightforward philosophical or theological answers, but reflecting on the mysteries of mortality can inspire people to live life more fully. Surveys show over 60% of people fear death more than pain, loneliness or any other life challenge.
Language Reflects Discomfort with Mortality
Contemplating death provokes unease, seen in euphemisms like “passing away” or “kicking the bucket.” These replacements for “they died” reveal cultural discomfort confronting mortality head-on. Yet obscuring death’s permanence too much also has consequences. Studies indicate using excessive euphemisms can complicate and prolong grieving processes. Our prolific metaphors signify how language continues evolving precariously to help address the deepest mysteries of human existence.
Need for Open Dialogue
As technology progresses, society must continually re-examine ethical codes, spiritual beliefs and scientific capabilities regarding death criteria. This complex issue connects to our deepest human values. Navigating it demands wisdom, nuance, and intellectual humility. With care and pluralistic thought, we can develop balanced understandings of mortality that still leave room for life’s enduring mysteries. An open, rigorous cross-disciplinary dialogue remains critical as we move into a future of increasing mastery over biology.
After our first meet-up in February 2015, I realised I was not alone. It was the first time since my cardiac arrest the previous year that I had spoken face-to-face with someone who had experienced what I had. This was also true for my wife, who also happened to be my lifesaver. From that meet-up, the idea of SCA UK was born. Since then, we have achieved a considerable amount, primarily providing information, resources and support to others in a similar situation but also raising the profile of survivorship and the need for better post-discharge care. We are starting to get traction in this, and with the formation of the charity, I genuinely believe we have a bright future ahead and will make a significant difference in the lives of many who join our ranks.
I was convinced I had died, because I remember feeling at peace, that memory would be impossible if I had travelled further over that threshold. Returning with a few jolts allowed me to remember how it felt.
My little journey left me very comfortable with the dying process, I fear it not. No pearly gates, no bright lights just peace.
I am not ready to go yet but having no fear, for me, is a blessing!
In my case, exactly the same thing. Totally at peace. No pain, no regret, just complete comfort. I don’t have any fear of death whatsoever now. Sorry folks, but nothing dramatic and certainly not an out of body experience just the all consuming darkness; the blackest black I have ever seen. The weird part is that blackness felt right, almost welcoming.
Hi, Steven ! Very interesting ! I’ve read that (the absolute blackness) many times before. I wouldn’t want to interpret what it was for you, of course, but I suspect, (based on what I’ve read down the years) if you’d been there a while longer, it would probably have become even more interesting. Best regards!
Hi, Bridget ! It’s so interesting to read your recollections, indeed the very similar ones reported by Steven and Morris below. I’m curious to know what your thoughts are on this because clearly you didn’t have any of the main elements of an NDE which are reported by about 20 per cent of people who have a cardiac arrest and are revived. Technically speaking, there shouldn’t be any awareness after the heart stops. Within 10 seconds, the electrical activity which is thought (or assumed) to be responsible for our thoughts, the totality of our minds, disappears. So, if you felt “peace” after your heart had stopped, that rather suggests that your mind was still in existence after your brain had flatlined which in turn opens up other posibilities, if you see what I mean. Best regards and don’t worry if you’d rather not discuss it etc, no problem at all.
Me too! Nothing but a peaceful blackness cloaked in utter silence. The most wonderful thing … call it death, a precursor to death, semi-death…. Whatever! But I now have no fear of death whatsoever. But as was said in GoT… there is a day to die, but today is not that day!
Hi, Morris, another very interesting recollection (as is Bridget’s and Steven’s). That sounds like the first stage of a classic NDE. The next is usually glimpsing an unearthly light or entering a tunnel. Best regards !
We 300 were all a bit surprised when Fabrice Muamba walked in to our Defibrillator Support Group in 2012 with his Pastor (!). We learnt later why.
Fabrice of course was that footballer who had endured 78 minutes of cardiac arrest on the Reebok stadium in Bolton. The cardiologists attending him were pa`rt of our team at Wythenshawe. The hospital was swamped with cardiologists from around the world. Would they have to rewrite the medical books??
My (then) hospital had about 1200 `Arresters` undergoing rehab, so it was amusing to talk about our experiences on being on `the other side` for between 14 and 25 minutes. Needless to say we treated Fabrice as a mock hero.
I`m now being treated at The Freeman, Newcastle. Expertise, slick logistics and plenty of humour make it an Outstanding place to be.
“We 300 were all a bit surprised when Fabrice Muamba walked in to our Defibrillator Support Group in 2012 with his Pastor (!). We learnt later why.”
Hello, sir (Frank) ! I hope you don’t mind me asking, but are you referring to near death experiences (NDE’s) when you say “experiences of the other side” ? Don’t worry if you’d rather not reply, I’ll understand entirely, best regards !
This blog makes you rethink death in today’s world of advanced medical science. It’s thought-provoking and sheds light on how our perspective on mortality has evolved. An interesting read that prompts reflection on the intersection of life and technology.