The Process of Death

In bringing you the story on the new study of near-death experiences, I failed to mention an important piece of the puzzle because I thought it made for a good entry:

Dr. Sam Parnia (head of the study) explained that death is not instantaneous; there is no single moment of death. It is a process, wherein the heart stops, the lungs quit, and the body eventually shuts down.

Often, medical workers continue to try and revive the patient for up to an hour following - trying to reverse the death process. While they are rarely successful, some studies have shown (and it is my personal opinion) that they do not spend enough time. While it is thought that severe damage is suffered after several minutes of brain-death - meaning resuscitation would likely result in a terminal loss of life's quality - this is not always true. People have been successfully revived and made full recoveries as long as 30 minutes after "brain-death."

The truth of the matter is that much of medical science relies on "one-size-fits-all" thinking. While it is understandable, due to the high demand and lack of time for real personal attention in all cases, it is deplorable by any standard. While certain things cannot always be avoided, when bad things can be, the people in control should at least try.

Knowing that death is not immediate - and can take many minutes to complete - simply reinforces this ideology.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008