New research into the dying brain suggests the line between life and death may be less distinct than previously thought
Patient One was 24 years old and pregnant with her third child when she was taken off life support. It was 2014. A couple of years earlier, she had been diagnosed with a disorder that caused an irregular heartbeat, and during her two previous pregnancies she had suffered seizures and faintings. Four weeks into her third pregnancy, she collapsed on the floor of her home. Her mother, who was with her, called 911. By the time an ambulance arrived, Patient One had been unconscious for more than 10 minutes. Paramedics found that her heart had stopped.
After being driven to a hospital where she couldn’t be treated, Patient One was taken to the emergency department at the University of Michigan. There, medical staff had to shock her chest three times with a defibrillator before they could restart her heart. She was placed on an external ventilator and pacemaker, and transferred to the neurointensive care unit, where doctors monitored her brain activity. She was unresponsive to external stimuli, and had a massive swelling in her brain. After she lay in a deep coma for three days, her family decided it was best to take her off life support. It was at that point – after her oxygen was turned off and nurses pulled the breathing tube from her throat – that Patient One became one of the most intriguing scientific subjects in recent history.
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In the moments after Patient One was taken off oxygen, there was a surge of activity in her dying brain. Areas that had been nearly silent while she was on life support suddenly thrummed with high-frequency electrical signals called gamma waves. In particular, the parts of the brain that scientists consider a “hot zone” for consciousness became dramatically alive. In one section, the signals remained detectable for more than six minutes. In another, they were 11 to 12 times higher than they had been before Patient One’s ventilator was removed.
“As she died, Patient One’s brain was functioning in a kind of hyperdrive,” Borjigin told me. For about two minutes after her oxygen was cut off, there was an intense synchronisation of her brain waves, a state associated with many cognitive functions, including heightened attention and memory. The synchronisation dampened for about 18 seconds, then intensified again for more than four minutes. It faded for a minute, then came back for a third time.
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What the fuck?
It was probably very cold outside, and the patient had some unique circumstances.
From my maritime first responder training: "You're not dead until you're warm and dead."
That's just wild. I always heard oxygen deprivation leads to brain damage and stuff?
The cold shields from this.
You only need oxygen when you're using it for something, but when your body is cooled to the point of chemical inactivity, you don't need any, so your brain isn't damaged by the lack of it.
Idk about 6 hours, but I do know there's a woman who was trapped under ice for 80 minutes, (although conscious for 40 of it, as she found a pocket of air first)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_B%C3%A5genholm
Like the other person (or persons) said, "you're not dead until you're warm and dead"
fascinating. I wonder where the line is between the cold preserving the body and the cold causing hypothermia that could lead to death.
Idk about humans, but there's a species of squirrel which get their body temperature to below freezing during hibernation.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_ground_squirrel
Nature do be crazy
Life finds a fuckin way holy shit