Even people who evade paying their taxes can’t avoid that other certainty in life: death. We all die, and when it happens, our bodies stop functioning the way they’re supposed to. And, well, it can be pretty gross. Here are a variety of things that happen to the body after death, when the organs have stopped functioning and tissues start to decompose.
What is death?
We all know what it means to die on a practical level, but what does modern medicine have to say? After all, people can be “brought back from the dead” with the help of a few electric shocks.
Actual, “clinical” death is defined as the ceasing of all “vital functions” of your organs, including your heart, your brain, and your lungs
The Lazarus phenomenon
In very rare instances, people have “come back” to life after CPR has stopped being performed, even if they’ve been pronounced dead for several minutes. For the majority of patients, “the Lazarus phenomenon” doesn’t last very long, and they die shortly after.
However, one review of 38 cases showed that 35 per cent of the patients returned to life without serious neurological damage.
The brain can be conscious of death
Often, when patients are “brought back” from the dead after cardiac arrest, usually through electric shocks to the heart, the patients can recall being “aware” of their short-lived “death.”
In these instances, it seems as if the brain is capable of retaining information, and some patients can even recall being pronounced dead before being resuscitated.
