• The recent development in medical science/techniques has posed a number of improvements, whereas for so many years it was accepted that death has occurred if respiration and circulation have ceased for more than 10 minutes.
• Now it is possible for methods such as cooling the whole body to 15oC or 59oF or less to stop the heart and respiration for an hour or longer and restart them again at will. During this period, ECG and EEG show no electrical activity and body looks like a corpse.
• This leads to the view that it is not the cessation of the respiration or circulation but it is their failure to return that indicates death. Thus we are driven from a positive to negative approach. Therefore, the doctor while taking decision must satisfy himself that not only respiration and circulation has stopped, but their failure has persisted to such a period that under no circumstances it is possible for the person to come to life again.
• This is the form of death referred to in common people. Death is said to have occurred when a final expiration is followed by continuous immobility of the chest, loss of pulse and alteration of the features. These changes indicate that respiration and circulation have been stopped and the brain will stop functioning if it has not been so.
• Residual heart movement is not of practical importance as they are insufficient to maintain the circulation. Somatic death can be detected by ECG that will stop within minutes.
(Contributed by Dr Sudhir Gupta)
• Now it is possible for methods such as cooling the whole body to 15oC or 59oF or less to stop the heart and respiration for an hour or longer and restart them again at will. During this period, ECG and EEG show no electrical activity and body looks like a corpse.
• This leads to the view that it is not the cessation of the respiration or circulation but it is their failure to return that indicates death. Thus we are driven from a positive to negative approach. Therefore, the doctor while taking decision must satisfy himself that not only respiration and circulation has stopped, but their failure has persisted to such a period that under no circumstances it is possible for the person to come to life again.
• This is the form of death referred to in common people. Death is said to have occurred when a final expiration is followed by continuous immobility of the chest, loss of pulse and alteration of the features. These changes indicate that respiration and circulation have been stopped and the brain will stop functioning if it has not been so.
• Residual heart movement is not of practical importance as they are insufficient to maintain the circulation. Somatic death can be detected by ECG that will stop within minutes.
(Contributed by Dr Sudhir Gupta)
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