To Treat the Dead
The new science of resuscitation is changing the way doctors think about heart attacks?and death itself.
As recently as 1993, when Dr. Sherwin Nuland wrote the best seller "How We Die," the conventional answer was that it was his cells that had died. The patient couldn't be revived because the tissues of his brain and heart had suffered irreversible damage from lack of oxygen. This process was understood to begin after just four or five minutes. If the patient doesn't receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation within that time, and if his heart can't be restarted soon thereafter, he is unlikely to recover. That dogma went unquestioned until researchers actually looked at oxygen-starved heart cells under a microscope. What they saw amazed them, according to Dr. Lance Becker, an authority on emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "After one hour," he says, "we couldn't see evidence the cells had died. We thought we'd done something wrong." In fact, cells cut off from their blood supply died only hours later.
But if the cells are still alive, why can't doctors revive someone who has been dead for an hour? Because once the cells have been without oxygen for more than five minutes, they die when their oxygen supply is resumed. It was that "astounding" discovery, Becker says, that led him to his post as the director of Penn's Center for Resuscitation Science, a newly created research institute operating on one of medicine's newest frontiers: treating the dead.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18368186/site/newsweek?GT1=9951
How do you define 'dead'? With trillions (or billions whichever is nearest to the count) of cells in a human body, when exactly a body is 'dead'?
Share your thoughts.
What exactly is Death?
What exactly is Death?
"It looks to us," says Becker, "as if the cellular surveillance mechanism cannot tell the difference between a cancer cell and a cell being reperfused with oxygen. Something throws the switch that makes the cell die."
Even though the science of genetics has been around for more than 50 years since Dr. Crick and Watson discovered the structure of DNA, this one area of science holds yet many great secrets to be discovered and those discoveries will benefit humans in significantly improving their quality of life free from diseases, improving longevity, etc in the next 50 years.
Buy some stocks (ETF in biotech engineering companies) for your children and put them aside for the next 25 years and the returns will be great.
Interstellar space and genetic engineering are the next great frontiers.
Even though the science of genetics has been around for more than 50 years since Dr. Crick and Watson discovered the structure of DNA, this one area of science holds yet many great secrets to be discovered and those discoveries will benefit humans in significantly improving their quality of life free from diseases, improving longevity, etc in the next 50 years.
Buy some stocks (ETF in biotech engineering companies) for your children and put them aside for the next 25 years and the returns will be great.
Interstellar space and genetic engineering are the next great frontiers.
What exactly is Death?
tejasvee;22597
How do you define 'dead'? With trillions (or billions whichever is nearest to the count) of cells in a human body, when exactly a body is 'dead'?
Share your thoughts.[/quote]
In my mind there can be 4 states of living/death
Living -------- : The state in which we are.
Dead and dead : We die and our body is disposed off - conventional death
Living but dead : Living in a vegetative state as was Terry Schaivo
Dead, but living : Those who have suffered a total and complete loss of a previous identity. Those suffering w/ advanced Alzeheimers, total amnesiatics. etc.
What exactly is Death?
MeraNaseebR2I;22626Ask the Korean kid who killed 32 at Va Tech
Ask US Army
Ask the terrorists
They will tell you what is death.[/quote]
I can safely comprehend the answer here as "I don't know"!
Why are we so scared of something that we don't know what it is?
What exactly is Death?
Hi Desi,
Which biotech stocks do you recommend? How about the funds?
AK
Which biotech stocks do you recommend? How about the funds?
AK
Desi;22633"It looks to us," says Becker, "as if the cellular surveillance mechanism cannot tell the difference between a cancer cell and a cell being reperfused with oxygen. Something throws the switch that makes the cell die."
Even though the science of genetics has been around for more than 50 years since Dr. Crick and Watson discovered the structure of DNA, this one area of science holds yet many great secrets to be discovered and those discoveries will benefit humans in significantly improving their quality of life free from diseases, improving longevity, etc in the next 50 years.
Buy some stocks (ETF in biotech engineering companies) for your children and put them aside for the next 25 years and the returns will be great.
Interstellar space and genetic engineering are the next great frontiers.[/quote]
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Chicago Desi
- Posts: 1642
- Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:24 am
What exactly is Death?
There are only two things certain in life: death and taxes.
Death is a defining moment in life for most creatures because they cease to exist in living form after that point. Rebirth, salvation, etc. are creations of the human mind. Religion tries to program us into model citizens and uses fear tactics to behave a certain way (as defined by the religion) by talking about what will happen to us after death.
What is death? To me, when the brain dies, we are dead. For some, its the heart. Not sure which one is the more legal definition.
Death is a defining moment in life for most creatures because they cease to exist in living form after that point. Rebirth, salvation, etc. are creations of the human mind. Religion tries to program us into model citizens and uses fear tactics to behave a certain way (as defined by the religion) by talking about what will happen to us after death.
What is death? To me, when the brain dies, we are dead. For some, its the heart. Not sure which one is the more legal definition.
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Desi_by_Nature
- Posts: 772
- Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:57 pm
What exactly is Death?
Death is like sex, life is like masturbation.
Therefore in life you can only imagine how death would be like, but never really understand it until you get there.
Therefore in life you can only imagine how death would be like, but never really understand it until you get there.
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Desi_by_Nature
- Posts: 772
- Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:57 pm
What exactly is Death?
euthanasia is rape. Like forced, non-consensual sex.
What exactly is Death?
Time to get back to subject.
Death is when the CPU does a core dump.
Death is when CPU ( brain) dies. This is a situation where there is irreversible damage that the brain permanently loses cognitive faculties.
Respiratory and Circulatory (heart attack) failures will lead to CPU death as they will deprive the brain of oxygen. When the brain is deprived of Oxygen long enough, the death occurs as there is irreversible damage to cognitive faculties of the brain.
Death is when the CPU does a core dump.
Death is when CPU ( brain) dies. This is a situation where there is irreversible damage that the brain permanently loses cognitive faculties.
Respiratory and Circulatory (heart attack) failures will lead to CPU death as they will deprive the brain of oxygen. When the brain is deprived of Oxygen long enough, the death occurs as there is irreversible damage to cognitive faculties of the brain.
What exactly is Death?
While we are on the topic of death, here is something to think about: Die broke!!
http://biz.yahoo.com/brn/070510/21642.html?.v=1&.pf=retirement
Look, money is not an icon, money is not a symbol; it's a tool to do stuff with. The minute you die, it becomes useless as a tool. You want to enjoy life better? See the results of what your money does. You can't hear "thanks" from the grave.
http://biz.yahoo.com/brn/070510/21642.html?.v=1&.pf=retirement
Look, money is not an icon, money is not a symbol; it's a tool to do stuff with. The minute you die, it becomes useless as a tool. You want to enjoy life better? See the results of what your money does. You can't hear "thanks" from the grave.