[Brillopad]

http://www.express.co.uk/news/scienc...sts-Flatliners

Quite disturbing.

[Ashley.]

An interesting read, perhaps not this early in the morning though...

I don't know how far I can believe it though. When you die, your body shuts down completely - your sense of awareness too. Even if your mind held an impression of consciousness for a short time after death, would you actually be aware of it? Could you think and react? I don't think so.

[Brillopad]

Originally Posted by Ashley.

An interesting read, perhaps not this early in the morning though...

I don't know how far I can believe it though. When you die, your body shuts down completely - your sense of awareness too. Even if your mind held an impression of consciousness for a short time after death, would you actually be aware of it? Could you think and react? I don't think so.

I don’t know Ashley, it’s such an unknown area. The thought of actually knowing you have died is pretty worrying especially for those that don’t believe in an afterlife and believe death is it - end of. I think most people would rather not know.

[Oliver_W]

I guess it's possible that some brain functions take longer to shut down than others, and some of the ones which dwindle would be those that "receive" the senses, and something to recognose this. All we'd see is a body that had stopped working, essentially.

[Toy Soldier]

It's talking about a very specific circumstance though - people with critical injuries flatlining on the operating table (and with the critical injuries not including head injury, because then you'd be out cold) and also I suppose sudden heart failure. It's not actually a very common way to go. Most people slip in and out over at least a few days... and in that case, there probably are moments of lucid thought where you realise "I'm not getting better am I", but you're most likely to be unconscious already when the body actually stops completely.

Either way... it would be seconds or at most minutes of awareness. Someone in the comments is talking about hearing being present for up to 20 minutes, which is nonsense. I mean... have someone press on your carotid artery and see what happens. You will pass out cold in under ten seconds, no awareness at all. You are alive, your brain is still functioning, but you're certainly not going to be aware of your surroundings or anything else. And that's the same thing that happens after your heart stops; no blood gets to the brain. So realistically, 10 seconds after your heart stops, there might still be measurable brain activity but the person would be "passed out", very unlikely that there's any conscious thought going on.

[DemolitionRed]

I've yet to meet a person who's survived a cardiac arrest that remembered anything.

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by DemolitionRed

I've yet to meet a person who's survived a cardiac arrest that remembered anything.

Well, exactly... it doesn't make sense. 6 - 10 seconds of blood not getting to the brain by compressing the artery, even if your heart is pumping fine, and you are out cold. People don't remember anything after the fade out. And like you say with cardiac arrest, the vast majority of people (who make it) report that they remember dropping and then nothing until waking up in hospital, not even like being asleep where we do have a subconscious perception of the passage of time, but almost like a "time jump". One minute walking... *BAM* it's hours or days later.

[Marsh.]

Originally Posted by Ashley.

An interesting read, perhaps not this early in the morning though...

I don't know how far I can believe it though. When you die, your body shuts down completely - your sense of awareness too. Even if your mind held an impression of consciousness for a short time after death, would you actually be aware of it? Could you think and react? I don't think so.

I think it simply means, everything in your body doesn't just switch off at once at the moment of death.

So the dying person would be conscious or semi-concious for a few minutes after their heart stops beating as everything then begins to shut down from lack of oxygen/blood flow. But I would've thought that was a fairly obvious thing and wouldn't require this new research.

[Amy Jade]

I don't believe it personally

[Marsh.]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Most people slip in and out over at least a few days....

I believe they used to call it fading.

"How's Margaret?"

"Oh she's fading fast"

[Littlegreen]

I believe it's possible for a few seconds for the person to be aware but then the body shuts down and that's it.

But then again what is that spark that allows us to live and kick starts the heart?

[Kizzy]

Perhaps you are, it's a viable option that once all unessential functions have ceased that your consciousness is heightened for a brief period.

[Niamh.]

I don't know if I'd care that much, I like sleeping alot

[Marsh.]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

I don't know if I'd care that much, I like sleeping alot

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Marsh.

I'm not even joking, I had to go in to hospital a couple of years ago for a small operation and I couldn't wait to get knocked out, I was wrecked tired

[Toy Soldier]

There's also the fact that anyone who is moments from death is likely to be a fair bit of pain... it's not like TV / movies, death is pretty much a sh*t-show. So most people would at least take some comfort in that, knowing it's about to be over?

Either that or if it's a more drawn out death, they'll have you pumped full of diamorphine. In which case you won't really care much about anything at all because you'll be flying over a rainbow on a unicorn .

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

There's also the fact that anyone who is moments from death is likely to be a fair bit of pain... it's not like TV / movies, death is pretty much a sh*t-show. So most people would at least take some comfort in that, knowing it's about to be over?

Either that or if it's a more drawn out death, they'll have you pumped full of diamorphine. In which case you won't really care much about anything at all because you'll be flying over a rainbow on a unicorn .

This is how I want to go

[Marsh.]

I'd fight the bloody unicorn.

[Toy Soldier]

Originally Posted by Marsh.

I'd fight the bloody unicorn.

One of THOSE drunks eh .

Or is it a "Rage against the dying of the light" thing?

[Marsh.]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

One of THOSE drunks eh .

Or is it a "Rage against the dying of the light" thing?

Both.

[AnnieK]

My mum did that thing like in the one where nana dies twice in friends. She had not taken a breath for around 10 minutes and the hospice staff had gone to get the doctor to pronounce her when she all if a sudden took a breath...it was freaky. It was one of the last she took but it was a breath rather than an expulsion of air. I honestly don't think she was aware of anything for days prior to her death though.

[DemolitionRed]

How about this: Sudden death which stops all activity in the brain immediately; followed by CPR (and I mean CPR within an emergency room), which still shows brain activity as flatlined even though small amounts of oxygen is now getting into the brain. CPR can go on for a long time, regardless of what it shows in films and during CPR the heart is being manually pumped and your cells are being kept alive with oxygen. As long as we can do this, the none living person isn't a corpse. It could be that there is a level of consciousness during this period, especially just prior to successful CPR.

[Vicky.]

Apparently, when people are beheaded their (cut off) head/brain still is aware of whats going on for a few seconds. So you can effectively watch your own death, from your severed head. I don't know how true that is, or how on earth that could be proven in reality

[Ramsay]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

I don't know if I'd care that much, I like sleeping alot

Dead right

[DemolitionRed]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Apparently, when people are beheaded their (cut off) head/brain still is aware of whats going on for a few seconds. So you can effectively watch your own death, from your severed head. I don't know how true that is, or how on earth that could be proven in reality

There are lots of stories about people blinking on command, grimacing and blushing after being decapitated. Its far more likely to be reflexive twitching.