"The line between life and death is now a fuzzy one. There have been kids who fall through the ice in winter and are underwater for an hour, yet they live without too much ill effect even though their brains were without oxygen for an hour. "
Interestingly enough, hypothermia is an exclusionary criteria for determining brain death, especially in children. So sometimes kids that appear to be dead, have to be warmed up before they can be officially declared dead.
And this phenomenon is well recognized. There is not really that much surprising about it. Induced hypothermia has been tried as a method to protect the brain during procedures that disrupt bloodflow to the brain, and as a treatment for head trauma. And there are pharmacological means of inducing a coma so deep that the brain waves are flat, and the patient would meet brain death criteria at that point. except for the fact that one of the criteria that is necessary is that the condition is irreversible, and the effects of medications, and hypothermia, are reversible. But are they dead at that point? Clearly no. And the patients wake up when the temperature is raised, or some time after the medication is discontinued.
This is not considered a resurrection by any means
Received on Wed May 25 21:19:26 2005
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