stories of dying and coming back to life

These conditions are usually treated during CPR, but they can take some time to resolve. Some conditions such as a high level of potassium or too much acid in your blood can cause your heart to stop beating. If it’s long enough, it appears that your circulation returns spontaneously rather than because of the shock. Sometimes there’s a delay between the shock and its effect. Temporary cardiac arrest after defibrillationĭuring CPR, a defibrillator may be used to send an electrical shock to your heart to try to restart it or to reset an irregular heart rhythm known as arrhythmia. If the medications are effective, your circulation will spontaneously return. Once air trapping resolves and the pressure in your chest is low enough, blood will flow to your heart, carrying the medication with it. When air trapping stops blood from returning to your heart, anything in your blood, including medication given through intravenous (IV) in your arms or legs, can’t get there. Medications given during CPR need to reach your heart to work. Circulation can return, and it can look like your heart has restarted itself. When CPR stops, the trapped air starts leaving your lungs, which reduces the pressure in your chest.Įventually, blood from your body can flow to your heart and be pumped to the rest of your body. prevent your heart from restarting during CPR.Eventually, it gets so high that your blood has trouble moving through your chest veins to your heart, and your heart has trouble pumping blood out to your body. This is called air trapping.Īs the air builds up, the pressure inside your chest increases. When air is pushed into your lungs too rapidly during CPR ( hyperventilation), there’s no time to exhale it, so it builds up. It’s more likely to happen if you have chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD). Air trappingĪir trapping is the most common explanation for Lazarus syndrome. It’s not known why Lazarus syndrome happens, but there are several theories that may explain it. fixed and dilated pupils that don’t respond to light.

Most importantly, medical personnel need to confirm the loss of function of multiple organs before declaring death. disconnecting the device used for ventilation for 10 seconds to relieve air trapping when it’s suspected.keeping a heart monitor attached to the person to confirm loss of a heart rhythm for 10 minutes or more.

waiting at least 10 minutes after CPR stops before declaring someone dead.You aren’t actually considered dead until the function of all your organs, including your brain, irreversibly stop.ĭeclaring someone dead immediately after CPR stops leaves the door open for Lazarus syndrome to occur. Many people think that death occurs as soon as the heart stops beating and breathing ceases.īut in fact, death is a process in which all your organs necessary for life progressively fail. In Lazarus syndrome, “death” doesn’t last nearly as long.Īccording to a 2020 research review, In most documented cases of Lazarus syndrome, circulation typically returned within 10 minutes of stopping CPR.

How soon after death does Lazarus syndrome happen?Īccording to the Bible, Lazarus was dead for 4 days before Jesus brought him back to life.

Stories of dying and coming back to life