The brain can retain some degree of consciousness for “minutes to hours” after a patient has been declared dead by doctors, a science conference has heard.
After studying the near-death experiences of those who have recovered after experiencing a cardiac arrest, a researcher has called for a reappraisal of the “reversibility of death”.
She said her findings suggest that doctors should keep trying to save patients’ lives for longer, noting that hospitals should “re-evaluate [their] resuscitation efforts” and the point at which they begin harvesting organs for donation.
Death is defined as the irreversible cessation of circulatory and brain function — but the exact moment at which this takes place may be harder to pinpoint than previously thought.
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Anna Fowler, a student at Arizona State University, said the transition between life and death may not be a sudden switching off of consciousness, but a “gradual, interruptible process” that science may “increasingly learn not just to delay but to challenge outright”.
She told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Phoenix, Arizona: “Emerging evidence suggests that biological and neural functions do not cease abruptly. Instead they decline from minutes to hours, suggesting that death unfolds as a process rather than an instantaneous event.
“Cardiac arrest studies show that up to 20 per cent of survivors recall conscious experiences during periods of absent cortical activity, with some reporting verifiable perceptions.”
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Fowler has analysed dozens of studies and academic publications, including those on “neuroelectrical activity at the threshold of death”. She believes that “elements of consciousness may briefly exist beyond the measurable activity of the brain”, suggesting that “death, long considered absolute, is instead a negotiable condition”.
Source: Drudge Report
