The main signs and tragic consequences of clinical death. Clinical death: what kind of condition it is, how it manifests itself, symptoms. Reviews from those who experienced clinical death Videos about recorded cases of clinical death

Resurrection from the dead is a long-standing dream of humanity. Jesus raised Lazarus and resurrected himself. Orpheus received permission to take his beloved wife Eurydice from the Kingdom of the Dead. Victor Frankenstein brought to life a monster made from body parts of the dead.

Modern scientists do not stop experimenting in this area. Thus, the employees of the Center for Resuscitation Research named after. P. Safar (Safar Center for Resuscitation Research) of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine achieved a reversible transfer of dogs to a state of clinical death. The blood in the vessels of the animals was replaced with highly cooled, specially selected saline solution. The dog's body temperature dropped to 7 °C, breathing and heart contractions stopped. It seems like nothing remarkable, because everyone knows how a long stay in icy water ends. But now scientists have mastered the most difficult stage - returning “chilled” dogs to life after they spent three hours (not just three minutes!) in a state of clinical death. The blood is returned to the vessels, the dog is allowed to breathe 100% oxygen, and the heart is “restarted” with an electric shock. Tests have shown that such “frostbitten” dogs are completely normal; no abnormalities were found in their brains.

If the method works on people, then the discovery could find practical use. Science fiction writers have long liked the idea of ​​long-term freezing of terminally ill patients “until better times.” Military doctors have become interested in the research and hope that in the near future, with the help of this technique, seriously wounded people on the battlefield will be quickly cooled to the point of clinical death. The chilled fighters will be taken to the hospital without any fuss, and when they are ready, they will be operated on in a hospital setting (by the way, there will be no need for anesthesia!) and will be brought back to life.

Clinical death is not death at all

In fact, being resurrected from the dead is a pipe dream. In a dead body, irreversible processes of decay soon begin, so that it is impossible to bring it back to life. It's about about the so-called biological death, or brain death. Clinical death - the state of stopping a person's breathing and blood circulation - leaves him a chance.

For many centuries, people have observed cases of those who seemed to have just died returning to life. Such episodes occur even more often in films. Main character The Green Mile brings life back to a recently killed mouse. In the movie “Far and Away,” the soul returns to the muscular body of Tom Cruise’s hero, flying up a couple of meters. Children who have experienced clinical death persistently try to convey news from their deceased wife to Kevin Costner's hero in the film "Dragonfly". Even King Kong, who was shot and fell from a skyscraper, is reanimated in the film King Kong Lives.

Biological death (brain death) is the irreversible cessation of all physical and chemical processes, which necessarily occurs in all living organisms. Brain death is determined by the absence of any reactions to external stimuli, cessation of breathing, absence of brain reflexes. At the same time, the pupils are dilated and do not react to light (remember, in detectives and action films the victims’ eyelids are pulled back - this is more reliable than feeling the pulse). What is clinical death? Stopping breathing and heart contractions. This in itself does not lead to irreversible changes. Even the most capricious brain cells can survive for several minutes without oxygen (but usually no more than five minutes). Clinical death is just a condition that leads to death if medical assistance is not provided in time. Even fifty years ago, clinical death almost always ended in biological death, so it so happened that cardiac and respiratory arrest were the most obvious signs death - began to be interpreted as death itself.

How to return to life after clinical death?

Today, any TV viewer knows about the actions of professionals during clinical death: indirect cardiac massage, mouth-to-mouth artificial respiration, electrical stimulation and exclamations: “We are losing him!” Moreover, resuscitation techniques can be used not only on humans. The Daily News newspaper describes an episode of the clinical death of a dog. In 1997, Abby, a Dalmatian in Los Angeles, choked on a ball, causing respiratory and cardiac arrest. For most dogs this would end in death. But Abby was lucky with her owners: Alan Cowen is a firefighter with thirty years of experience, and his nineteen-year-old son Robby Cowen completed first aid courses shortly before this incident. The determined men did not hesitate: Alain removed the ball from his throat using the Heimlich maneuver (Henry Jay Heimlich). In public, this technique looks like this: the rescuer is behind the victim’s back, wraps his arms around bottom part chest and presses sharply. If you wish, you can imagine something similar on a dog. The ball was removed, but breathing and pulse were not restored, the dog's body remained relaxed, and Robbie began artificial respiration“mouth to mouth”, or rather “mouth to mouth”. “I felt no resistance or fear that the dog would bite me,” Robbie recalled. If someone looked into the house, he would probably be surprised at what was happening. But the techniques helped - after 10 minutes the dog began to breathe and came to his senses. Alain, who had seen everyone in his 30 years as a firefighter, later admitted that the experiences of these ten minutes were the most powerful in his life.

Greetings from the other world

In a state of clinical death, the electroencephalogram shows the absence of activity in most of the brain. This condition is accompanied by loss of consciousness and leaves no memories. However, between four and twelve percent of people who have experienced clinical death have experienced and can describe something scientists call a near-death experience. After clinical death, people remember that they communicated with deceased relatives, saw a tunnel, bright light, mystical creatures, experienced short review past life. Some are watching own body and medical staff from the outside, and from somewhere above, and can even describe such details as if they actually saw what was happening, and in some, albeit unverified cases, the medical staff confirms these details. Sometimes unpleasant experiences, similar to nightmares, are reported, but usually the experience is pleasant, there is no pain or fear of death.

British scientists Sam Parnia from Southampton General Hospital and Peter Fenwick from the Institute of Psychiatry King's college London conducted a series of studies to find out why "near-death impressions" are associated. They could well be the result of self-hypnosis of a "prepared" brain. For example, among believers, mentally unstable people, or those who think a lot about death and what awaits them After.

It turned out that not everything is so simple: similar sensations during clinical death are sometimes experienced by children who are too young to have pre-formed ideas about the afterlife, to which they would “adjust” their stories. Professor Bruce Grayson from Medical center The University of Virginia Health System and a group of scientists led by Pim van Lommel from the Dutch Rijnstate Hospital conducted a series of statistical studies of hundreds of patients who experienced clinical death. It turned out that “near-death experiences” are not associated with religiosity, fear of death, ethnicity, gender, social status, medical indicators, duration of clinical death and mental abilities.

Comparing the testimony of people who experienced clinical death without “near-death experiences” and those who had them, the researchers found that “visions” occurred more often in certain groups of people. Particularly in patients under sixty years of age; those who experienced cardiac arrest for the first time; in those patients who have already had “near-death experiences” before; as well as in patients who died within the next 30 days after clinical death. Among patients who developed memory impairments after clinical death, “near-death impressions,” on the contrary, were less common (perhaps these patients simply forgot about them). At the moment, scientists are not able to draw any definite conclusions from these studies.

Are there scientific explanations?

Everything is very simple if you accept the concept of the soul separating from the body. Much more interesting are attempts at explanations from strictly materialistic positions. The first mystery for neurophysiologists is what impressions and experiences can there be if the electroencephalogram is smooth, like that of a dead person? (During sleep, the electrical activity of the brain is easily recorded.) There is a version that in fact a person experiences “near-death experiences” not during clinical death, but after, when brain activity is already restored. But cases remain unexplained when a “clinical dead person” correctly describes the events that occurred during clinical death.

If we assume that “near-death experiences” are the result of some special processes in the dying brain, then it is not clear why only 4-12% of people remember these sensations after clinical death. So far no physiological or medical features, which would distinguish this group from the rest of the “returnees” from the other world. During dreams, for example, the electroencephalogram of all people changes in a certain way.

The question of the nature of the experiences recorded by the brain also remains open. The simplest explanation is that “near-death experiences” are a person’s self-hypnosis and false memories. The brain tries to “fill” an “empty” period of time with memories. In favor of false memories, for example, is the following observation by Pim van Lommel: some patients who, during the first interview after clinical death, claimed that they did not remember anything, when interviewed again 2 years later, “remembered” their impressions.

The most mysterious component of “near-death experiences” is the feeling of being outside the physical body, the patient observing himself and the medical staff from the outside, usually from above. The described cases raise doubts among scientists: patients could have seen something before and after clinical death, learned something from the medical staff, or simply guessed what was happening, especially since the actions of doctors are always approximately the same. To obtain reliable evidence of being outside the body, Dr. Sam Pania and his colleagues came up with the idea of ​​hanging a platform from the ceiling and placing various objects on it. If consciousness during clinical death really “sees” something from above, then the person will then be able to name the objects that were on the platform. But so far, scientists have had no luck: those people who were resuscitated in a room with a platform did not feel that they were outside the body.

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Clinical death is one of the most mysterious conditions in medicine. The stories of people who experienced it still cannot be fully explained with scientific point vision. What is clinical death and how does it differ from other extremely serious condition which is called coma? In what case do we talk about biological death, and how does the rehabilitation of patients occur after they have been between two worlds?

What is clinical death

Clinical death is an intermediate state between life and death. It is reversible, that is, subject to certain medical measures, the vital functions of the human body can be completely restored. However, the duration of clinical death before it becomes biological is very short and is only 4-6 minutes. Therefore, the future fate of a person depends on the speed of resuscitation measures.

A feature of clinical death...

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How long can a person remain in a state of clinical death? This depends on many factors: the type of dying, its conditions, body temperature, age of the dying person, etc. Death usually occurs because organs and tissues no longer receive the oxygen they need. If you manage to get the cardiovascular and respiratory systems working in time, the person will return to life.

But the problem is that some body cells cannot exist for a long time without oxygen. The more complex functions the tissues perform, the less viable they are. The most highly organized tissue of the body is the cerebral cortex. It is believed that clinical death is determined by the time interval that the cerebral cortex can survive without blood circulation and breathing. According to doctors, in normal conditions this is no more than 5-7 minutes.

But it doesn’t always fit into these minutes. With large blood loss, a person dies instantly. On the other hand, there are known cases of successful revival even after 12-22...

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Clinical death is a reversible stage of dying, transition period between life and biological death. On at this stage the activity of the heart and the breathing process stops, all external signs vital activity of the body. At the same time, hypoxia (oxygen starvation) does not cause irreversible changes in the organs and systems that are most sensitive to it.

This period terminal state, with the exception of rare and casuistic cases, on average lasts no more than 3-4 minutes, maximum 5-6 minutes (at initially low or normal body temperature).

Third stage of death

Clinical death is a state of the human body when there are no primary signs of life - breathing stops, the heart stops working, there are no visible signs of central activity. nervous system(unconscious person). This condition may seem inexplicable, but only at first glance, if it is considered in isolation, in itself...

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This period of terminal condition, with the exception of rare and casuistic cases, lasts on average no more than 3-4 minutes. The duration of clinical death is determined by the period during which the higher departments. On average, from the moment spontaneous breathing and heartbeat ceases until the onset of biological death. The listed signs refer to initial stage clinical death.. At this stage, the activity of the heart and the breathing process stop. Summary articles Description and symptoms of the phenomenon. However, the duration of clinical death before it becomes biological is very short and amounts to only 4–6 minutes. Under normal conditions, the duration of clinical death is no more than 5–6 minutes. Clinical death is a reversible stage of dying, a transition period between life and biological death. Signs of clinical death. 4. Duration of clinical death... Death consists of two phases of clinical and biological death....

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Priest Alexy Timakov, by his secular profession, is a resuscitator and worked for many years in the intensive care unit and department intensive care. What kind of experience does a person get by seeing every day how people pass away from life and how they leave...death, returning to life? What is there, beyond the grave line? And how do we prepare... no, not for death, but for eternal life, true life? Our conversation with Father Alexy is about this. And of course, we couldn’t help but inquire about the medical specifics of resuscitation.

Father Alexy, explain the meaning of resuscitation with medical point vision?

Resuscitation is, to put it simply, a set of measures to revive a person who is in a state of clinical death. And clinical death is a cessation of blood circulation and breathing, but, above all, blood circulation.

Why does blood circulation stop? Does the heart stop working?

It happens that the heart stops: a knock - and that’s it, it sank and didn’t...

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Clinical death is a human condition in which there are no signs of life. In this case, tissues and organs remain alive.

Clinical death is a reversible condition and with timely provision of medical care, the patient can be brought back to life.

Stages of clinical death

The onset of clinical death is observed after blood circulation in the human body stops, breathing and pulse stop. During this period, necrotic changes in tissues do not yet develop.

The duration of this state is on average 3-6 minutes. During this period, the parts of the brain maintain their viability. Timely implementation of resuscitation procedures guarantees the patient’s return to life.

There are two stages of death in which the patient is given the opportunity to return to life.

At the first stage of clinical death, the appearance of disorders in the brain is observed. During this period...

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Signs of clinical death

Clinical death is usually determined by the following signs:

The man lost consciousness. This condition usually occurs within 15 seconds after circulation has stopped. Important: blood circulation cannot stop if a person is conscious; it is impossible to determine the pulse in the area within 10 seconds carotid arteries. This sign indicates that the blood supply to the brain has stopped, and very soon the cells of the cerebral cortex will die. The carotid artery is located in the depression separating the sternocleidomastoid muscle and the trachea; the person has stopped breathing altogether, or due to lack of breathing, the respiratory muscles periodically contract convulsively (this state of swallowing air is called atonal breathing, turning into apnea); a person's pupils dilate and stop responding to the light source. This symptom is a consequence of the cessation of blood supply to the brain centers and the nerve responsible for movement...

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Longest clinical death

Borderline state

To put it simply, death is the moment of cessation of all physiological processes in the tissues and cells of a once living organism. It can be sudden, when irreversible changes occur almost instantly, or it can be accompanied by a borderline state called clinical death. As the Russian scientist, creator of resuscitation V.A. said. Negovsky is not yet death, but no longer life. This is a kind of threshold, frozen at which human body can move: back to life, or forward, to biological death.

First term

The time spent in this state determines the quality of life after return. The period during which there is a maximum probability that the body will function normally is a little more than five minutes. This is the period when the responsible parts of the brain remain viable in the absence of oxygen, experts call it...

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The main stages of dying are the preagonal state, terminal pause, agony, clinical and biological death.

The preagonal state is a stage of dying, characterized by a sharp decrease in the level of blood pressure, first tachycardia and tachypnea, then bradycardia and bradypnea, progressive depression of consciousness, electrical activity brain and stem reflexes and an increase in the depth of oxygen starvation of all organs and tissues. The fourth Stage of torpid shock can be identified to a certain extent with the preagonal state.

The preagonal state ends with a terminal pause in breathing, which usually coincides with a sharp slowdown in the pulse up to temporary asystole.

Agony is the stage of dying that precedes death, which is characterized by the last outbreak of life activity. During the period of agony of function higher departments the brain is turned off, the regulation of physiological functions is carried out by the bulbar centers and is primitive,...

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Clinical death is a reversible, conditionally short-term period of dying, a stage of transition from life to death. During this period, cardiac activity and respiratory functions stop, all external signs of vitality completely disappear. While hypoxia (oxygen starvation) does not cause irreversible changes in the organs and systems most sensitive to it. This terminal state period except rare cases and casuistry, on average lasts no more than 3-4 minutes, maximum 5-6 minutes (at initially low or normal body temperature)

Signs of clinical death

Loss of consciousness

Absence of pulse in the great vessels

Lack of breathing

The presence of ventricular complexes on the ECG

Duration of clinical death

Determined by the period during which upper sections brain (subcortical substance and in particular the cortex) can maintain viability in conditions of lack of oxygen (hypoxia). Describing the character...

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Clinical death: what kind of condition it is, how it manifests itself, symptoms. Reviews from those who experienced clinical death

“Suddenly I dreamed that my soul had left my body and was floating above the ceiling. An unusual calm filled the body. But here everything was shrouded in darkness, and only a distant flicker of light loomed somewhere in the distance.” This is what the memories of a person who had a clinical death look like. What kind of phenomenon this is and how it happens – we will describe in this article. Science and esotericism this state interpreted differently.

Description and symptoms of the phenomenon

Clinical death is a medical term meaning the cessation of two the most important conditions for supporting human life– blood circulation and respiration.

Among the main signs of the condition:

Within a few seconds after apnea and asystole, loss of consciousness occurs; The brain continues to live and work; The pupils dilate and do not contract when exposed to light. This happens due to dystrophy...

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Scientists have conducted research and identified a list of the most common scenarios. Individual sensations were both independent and in a group with others.

1. Long corridor

We were lucky enough to see the passage of a corridor with light at the end of the path in 42% of cases. People saw something divine there, or their relatives who had died.

2. Absolute love

69% of people experienced a wonderful feeling of absolute love.

3. Telepathic abilities

65% of subjects showed incredible abilities to communicate non-verbally with people or creatures.

4. Joy, admiration

In 56% of cases, they experienced admiration from meeting divine creatures and joy from meeting relatives. People were happy to be there.

In 56% of cases, people said that they saw the highest deity - God. Surprisingly, even 75% of those who were convinced atheists felt his presence.

6. Absolute knowledge

Unfathomable abilities...

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Cardiac arrest and cerebral coma: clinical death from a medical point of view

“Man is mortal, but his main problem is that he is mortal suddenly,” these words, put by Bulgakov into Woland’s mouth, perfectly describe the feelings of most people. There is probably no person who is not afraid of death. But along with the big death, there is a small death - clinical. What is it, why do people who have experienced clinical death often see divine light, and is this not a delayed path to heaven - in the material M24.ru.

Clinical death from a medical point of view

Problems of studying clinical death as borderline state between life and death remain one of the most important in modern medicine. Unraveling its many mysteries is also difficult because many people who have experienced clinical death do not fully recover, and more than half of patients with similar condition it is not possible to resuscitate them, and they already die...

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Clinical death - like a portal between life and death Clinical death has a return point to real world, therefore, many consider this human condition to be a portal between life and death. None of the scientists can reliably say whether a person in a state of clinical death is dead or alive. Polls large quantity people showed that many of them perfectly remember everything that happened to them. But on the other hand, from the point of view of doctors, in a state of clinical death, patients do not show any signs of life, and the return to the real world occurs thanks to the ongoing resuscitation measures.

Concept of clinical death

The very concept of clinical death was introduced in the second half of the last century. This was a period of development of resuscitation technologies, which made it possible to bring a person back to life within a few minutes after he stopped showing signs of life. People who were brought back from a state of clinical death, like...

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A person is able to live without water and food for some time, but without access to oxygen, breathing will stop after 3 minutes. This process is called clinical death, when the brain is still alive, but the heart does not beat. A person can still be saved if you know the rules of emergency resuscitation. In this case, both doctors and those who are next to the victim can help. The main thing is not to get confused and act quickly. This requires knowledge of the signs of clinical death, its symptoms and the rules of resuscitation.

Symptoms of clinical death

Clinical death is a reversible state of dying in which the heart stops working and breathing stops. All external signs of vital activity disappear, and it may seem that the person is dead. This process is a transitional stage between life and biological death, after which it is impossible to survive. During clinical death (3-6 minutes), oxygen starvation has virtually no effect on the subsequent functioning of organs, general condition. If more than 6 minutes have passed, the person will be deprived of many vital important functions due to the death of brain cells.

To recognize this condition in time, you need to know its symptoms. Signs of clinical death are:

• Coma - loss of consciousness, cardiac arrest with cessation of blood circulation, pupils do not react to light.
• Apnea – absence breathing movements chest, but metabolism remains at the same level.
• Asystole - the pulse in both carotid arteries cannot be heard for more than 10 seconds, which indicates the beginning of destruction of the cerebral cortex.

Duration

Under conditions of hypoxia, the cerebral cortex and subcortex are able to remain viable for a certain time. Based on this, the duration of clinical death is determined by two stages. The first of them lasts about 3-5 minutes. During this period, provided that the body temperature is normal, there is no oxygen supply to all parts of the brain. Exceeding this time range increases the risk of irreversible conditions:

• decortication - destruction of the cerebral cortex;
• Decerebration – death of all parts of the brain.

The second stage of the state of reversible dying lasts 10 minutes or more. It is characteristic of an organism with a reduced temperature. This process can be natural (hypothermia, frostbite) and artificial (hypothermia). In a hospital setting, this state is achieved by several methods:

• hyperbaric oxygen therapy– saturation of the body with oxygen under pressure in a special chamber;
• hemosorption - blood purification by a device;
• drugs that sharply reduce metabolism and cause suspended animation;
• transfusion of fresh donor blood.

Causes of clinical death

The state between life and death occurs for several reasons. They can be caused by the following factors:

• heart failure;
• obstruction of the respiratory tract (lung disease, suffocation);
• anaphylactic shock– respiratory arrest due to the body’s rapid reaction to an allergen;
• large loss of blood due to injuries, wounds;
• electrical damage to tissues;
• extensive burns, wounds;
• toxic shock– poisoning toxic substances;
• vasospasm;
• the body's response to stress;
• excessive physical exercise;
• violent death.

Basic steps and first aid methods

Before taking first aid measures, you must be sure that a state of temporary death has occurred. If all of the following symptoms are present, it is necessary to proceed to treatment emergency assistance. You should make sure of the following:

• the victim is unconscious;
• the chest does not make inhalation-exhalation movements;
• there is no pulse, the pupils do not react to light.

If there are symptoms of clinical death, it is necessary to call an ambulance resuscitation team. Until the doctors arrive, it is necessary to maintain the victim’s vital functions as much as possible. To do this, apply a precordial blow to the chest with a fist in the area of ​​the heart. The procedure can be repeated 2-3 times. If the victim’s condition remains unchanged, then we must proceed to artificial ventilation lungs (ventilator) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation(CPR).

CPR is divided into two stages: basic and specialized. The first is performed by a person who is next to the victim. Second - trained medical workers on site or in a hospital. The algorithm for performing the first stage is as follows:

1. Lay the victim on a flat, hard surface.
2. Place your hand on his forehead, tilting his head back slightly. At the same time, the chin will move forward.
3. With one hand, pinch the victim’s nose, with the other, stretch out your tongue and try to blow air into your mouth. Frequency – about 12 breaths per minute.
4. Go to indirect massage hearts.

To do this, use the palm of one hand to press on the area of ​​the lower third of the sternum, and place the second hand on top of the first. Indentation chest wall is performed to a depth of 3-5 cm, and the frequency should not exceed 100 contractions per minute. Pressure is performed without bending the elbows, i.e. straight position of the shoulders over the palms. You cannot inflate and compress the chest at the same time. It is necessary to ensure that the nose is tightly pinched, otherwise the lungs will not receive the required amount of oxygen. If insufflation is done quickly, air will enter the stomach, causing vomiting.

Resuscitation of a patient in a clinical setting

Resuscitation of the victim in a hospital setting is carried out according to specific system. It consists of the following methods:

1. Electrical defibrillation - stimulation of breathing by exposure to electrodes with alternating current.
2. Medical resuscitation through intravenous or endotracheal administration of solutions (Adrenaline, Atropine, Naloxone).
3. Circulatory support by administering Gecodez through a central venous catheter.
4. Correction acid-base balance intravenously (Sorbilact, Xylate).
5. Restoration of capillary circulation by drip(Reosorbilact).

When successful implementation resuscitation measures, the patient is transferred to the intensive care ward, where further treatment and monitoring of the condition is carried out. Resuscitation stops at following cases:

• Ineffective resuscitation measures within 30 minutes.
• Statement of the state of biological death of a person due to brain death.

Signs of biological death

Biological death is the final stage of clinical death if resuscitation measures are ineffective. Tissues and cells of the body do not die immediately; it all depends on the organ’s ability to survive hypoxia. Death is diagnosed based on certain signs. They are divided into reliable (early and late), and orienting - immobility of the body, absence of breathing, heartbeat, pulse.

Biological death can be distinguished from clinical death using early signs. They occur 60 minutes after death. These include:

• lack of pupillary response to light or pressure;
• the appearance of triangles of dried skin (Larchet spots);
• drying of the lips - they become wrinkled, dense, brown in color;
• symptom " cat eye“- the pupil becomes elongated due to the lack of eye and blood pressure;
• drying of the cornea - the iris becomes covered with a white film, the pupil becomes cloudy.

A day after dying, they appear late signs biological death. These include:

• the appearance of cadaveric spots - localized mainly on the arms and legs. The spots have a marbled color.
• rigor mortis is a condition of the body due to ongoing biochemical processes that disappears after 3 days.
• cadaveric cooling - states the completion of biological death when the body temperature drops to a minimum level (below 30 degrees).

The life of the body is impossible without oxygen, which we receive through respiratory and circulatory system. If we stop breathing or stop blood circulation, we will die. However, if breathing stops and heartbeat stops fatal outcome does not come immediately. There is a certain transitional stage that cannot be attributed to either life or death - this is clinical death.

This state lasts several minutes from the moment when breathing and heartbeat stop, the body’s vital activity has died down, but irreversible damage has not yet occurred at the tissue level. From such a state it is still possible to bring a person back to life if you take emergency measures to provide emergency care.

Causes of clinical death

The definition of clinical death comes down to the following - this is a state when only a few minutes remain before a person’s real death. For that a short time it is still possible to save and bring the patient back to life.

What is the potential cause of this condition?

One of the most common reasons– heartbeat stops. This is a terrible factor when the heart stops unexpectedly, although nothing previously foreshadowed trouble. Most often this occurs when there is any disruption in the functioning of this organ, or when the coronary system is blocked by a blood clot.

Other common reasons include the following:

• excessive physical or stressful overexertion, which negatively affects cardiac blood supply;
• loss of significant volumes of blood due to injuries, wounds, etc.;
• state of shock (including anaphylaxis - a consequence of a strong allergic response of the body);
• respiratory arrest, asphyxia;
• serious thermal, electrical or mechanical tissue damage;
• toxic shock - the effect of poisonous, chemical and toxic substances on the body.

Causes of clinical death also include chronic protracted diseases of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, as well as situations of accidental or violent death (presence of injuries incompatible with life, brain injuries, cardiac concussions, compression and bruises, embolism, aspiration of fluid or blood, reflex spasm coronary vessels and cardiac arrest).

Signs of clinical death

Clinical death is usually determined by the following signs:

• the man lost consciousness. This condition usually occurs within 15 seconds after circulation has stopped. Important: blood circulation cannot stop if a person is conscious;
• It is impossible to determine the pulse in the area of ​​the carotid arteries within 10 seconds. This sign indicates that the blood supply to the brain has stopped, and very soon the cells of the cerebral cortex will die. The carotid artery is located in the depression separating the sternocleidomastoid muscle and the trachea;
• the person has stopped breathing altogether, or due to lack of breathing, the respiratory muscles periodically contract convulsively (this state of swallowing air is called atonal breathing, turning into apnea);
• a person's pupils dilate and stop responding to the light source. This symptom is a consequence of the cessation of blood supply to the brain centers and the nerve responsible for eye movement. This is the most late symptom clinical death, so you should not wait for it, it is necessary to take emergency medical measures in advance.

Clinical death from drowning

Drowning occurs when a person is completely immersed in water, which causes difficulty or complete cessation of respiratory gas exchange. There are several reasons for this:

• inhalation of liquid respiratory tract person;
• laryngospastic condition due to water entering the respiratory system;
• shock cardiac arrest;
• seizure, heart attack, stroke.

In a state of clinical death, the visual picture is characterized by loss of consciousness of the victim, cyanosis of the skin, absence of respiratory movements and pulsation in the area of ​​the carotid arteries, dilation of the pupils and lack of their reaction to the light source.

The likelihood of successfully reviving a person in this state is minimal, since he wasted large quantities energy of the body in the struggle for life while in water. The possibility of a positive outcome of resuscitation measures to save the victim may directly depend on the duration of a person’s stay in the water, his age, his state of health, and the temperature of the water. By the way, at a low temperature of the reservoir, the victim’s chance of survival is much higher.

Feelings of people who have experienced clinical death

What do people see during clinical death? Visions may be different, or they may not exist at all. Some of them are understandable from the point of view scientific medicine, some continue to surprise and amaze people.

Some victims who described their time in the “clutches of death” say that they saw and met some of their deceased relatives or friends. Sometimes visions are so realistic that it can be quite difficult not to believe in them.

Many visions are associated with a person’s ability to fly above his own body. Sometimes resuscitated patients describe in sufficient detail the appearance and actions of the doctors who carried out urgent measures. Scientific explanation there are no such phenomena.

Often victims report that during the resuscitation period they could penetrate through the wall into neighboring rooms: they describe in some detail the situation, people, procedures, everything that was happening at the same time in other wards and operating rooms.

Medicine tries to explain such phenomena by the characteristics of our subconscious: being in a state of clinical death, a person hears certain sounds stored in the brain memory, and at a subconscious level complements the sound images with visual ones.

Artificial clinical death

The concept of artificial clinical death is often identified with the concept induced coma, which is not entirely true. Medicine does not use the special introduction of a person into a state of death; euthanasia is prohibited in our country. But artificial coma is used in medicinal purposes, and even quite successfully.

Induction into an artificial coma is used to prevent disorders that can negatively affect the functions of the cerebral cortex, for example, hemorrhage, accompanied by pressure on areas of the brain and its swelling.

Induced coma may be used instead of anesthesia in cases where several serious emergencies await surgical interventions, as well as in neurosurgery and in the treatment of epilepsy.

The patient is put into a coma using medical drugs. The procedure is performed according to strict medical and life-saving indications. The risk of putting a patient into a coma must be fully justified by the possible expected benefit of such a state. A big plus of an artificial coma is that this process is absolutely controlled by doctors. The dynamics of this state are often positive.

Stages of clinical death

Clinical death lasts exactly as long as the brain in a hypoxic state can maintain its own viability.

There are two stages of clinical death:

• the first stage lasts about 3-5 minutes. During this time, the areas of the brain that are responsible for the vital functions of the body still retain their ability to live under normothermic and anoxic conditions. Almost all scientific experts agree that prolonging this period does not exclude the possibility of reviving a person, but it can lead to irreversible consequences of the death of some or all parts of the brain;
• the second stage can occur under certain conditions and can last several tens of minutes. Certain conditions refer to situations that help slow down the degenerative processes of the brain. This is artificial or natural cooling of the body, which occurs when freezing, drowning and electrical shock person. In such situations, the duration clinical condition increases.

Coma after clinical death

Consequences of clinical death

The consequences of being in a state of clinical death depend entirely on how quickly the patient is resuscitated. The sooner a person returns to life, the more favorable the prognosis awaits him. If less than three minutes have passed after stopping cardiac activity before it resumes, then the likelihood of brain degeneration is minimal, and the occurrence of complications is unlikely.

If the duration of resuscitation measures is delayed for any reason, the lack of oxygen in the brain can lead to irreversible complications, including the complete loss of vital body functions.

During prolonged resuscitation, in order to prevent hypoxic brain disorders, a cooling technique is sometimes used to human body, which allows you to increase the period of reversibility of degenerative processes to several additional minutes.

Life after clinical death for most people takes on new colors: first of all, their worldview, views on their actions, and principles of life change. Many gain psychic abilities, the gift of clairvoyance. What processes contribute to this, what new pathways open as a result of several minutes of clinical death, is still unknown.

Clinical and biological death

The state of clinical death, if emergency assistance is not provided, invariably passes into the next one, final stage life - biological death. Biological death occurs as a result of brain death - this condition is irreversible; resuscitation measures at this stage are futile, impractical and do not bring positive results.

Death usually occurs 5-6 minutes after the onset of clinical death, in the absence of resuscitation measures. Sometimes the time of clinical death may be slightly longer, which depends mainly on the ambient temperature: when low temperatures metabolism slows down, oxygen starvation of tissues is more easily tolerated, so the body can remain in a state of hypoxia longer.

The following symptoms are considered signs of biological death:

• clouding of the pupil, loss of shine (drying) of the cornea;
• “cat's eye” - when the eyeball is compressed, the pupil changes in shape and turns into a kind of “slit”. If the person is alive, this procedure is impossible;
• a decrease in body temperature occurs by approximately one degree for every hour after death, so this sign is not an emergency;
• the appearance of cadaveric spots - bluish spots on the body;
• muscle tightening.

It has been established that with the onset of biological death, the cerebral cortex dies first, then the subcortical zone and spinal cord, after 4 hours - the bone marrow, and after that - the skin, muscle and tendon fibers, and bones within 24 hours.