death

[sandman666]

ive watched tv programes about people who have been clinically dead for long periods of time in some cases way over an hour and then been brought back,how is this possible?

[theprof]

It is certainly possible but it depends on the method by which death occurred. For example, initial diagnosis of death by drowning has been made with many victims of drowning, but without going into too much detail, as long as the lungs are reinflated and water expelled, recovery is feasible.

Another example is the external electrical stimulation of the "nerve centre" of the heart which is often possible many hours after death despite the tendency on TV dramas to show this as a forlorn hope.

Sorry if I'm talking generally but you've not given us any examples of what you saw on TV so I can't explain specifically. Furthermore, to be diagnosed as "clinically dead", quite a few criteria have to met. Were all these criteria met?

l'll finish by saying, never forget the commonly held religious viewpoint on this where people report being drawn down a tunnel with a light at the end only to be told their time is not up yet and get sent back to the land of the living. Now although there have been a few plausible scientific explanations for this in recent months, it is still regarded as unexplainable and is said to be divine intervention. Unlike many of my scientific colleagues, I keep an open mind about this but who knows?

[mibn2cweus]

theprof, Don't strike a match. I think there may be a volatile concentration of ether in the air! I'm just keeping an open mind about this . . .

[squarebear]

Was this programme The X Files by any chance?

sorry :-)