Death Health Article

Definition

Death is defined as the cessation of all vital functions of the body including the heartbeat, brain activity (including the brain stem), and breathing.

Description

Death comes in many forms, whether it be expected after a diagnosis of terminal illness or an unexpected accident or medical condition.

Terminal illness

When a terminal illness is diagnosed, a person, family, friends, and physicians are all able to prepare for the impending death. A terminally ill individual goes through several levels of emotional acceptance while in the process of dying. First, there is denial and isolation. This is followed by anger and resentment. Thirdly, a person tries to escape the inevitable. With the realization that death is eminent, most people suffer from depression. Lastly, the reality of death is realized and accepted.

Causes and symptoms

As of 2001, the two leading causes of death for both men and women in the United States were heart disease and cancer. Accidental death was a distant third followed by such problems as stroke, chronic lung disorders, pneumonia, suicide, cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, and murder. The order of these causes of death varies among persons of different age, ethnicity, and gender.

Diagnosis

In an age of organ transplantation, identifying the moment of death may now involve another life. It thereby takes on supreme legal importance. It is largely due to the need for transplant organs that death has been so precisely defined.

The official signs of death include the following:

• no pupil reaction to light
• no response of the eyes to caloric (warm or cold) stimulation
• no jaw reflex (the jaw will react like the knee if hit with a reflex hammer)
• no gag reflex (touching the back of the throat induces vomiting)
• no response to pain
• no breathing
• a body temperature above 86°F (30°C), which eliminates the possibility of resuscitation following cold-water drowning
• no other cause for the above, such as a head injury
• no drugs present in the body that could cause apparent death
• all of the above for 12 hours
• all of the above for six hours and a flat-line electroencephalogram (brain wave study)
• no blood circulating to the brain, as demonstrated by angiography

Current ability to resuscitate people who have "died" has produced some remarkable stories. Drowning in cold water (under 50°F/10°C) so effectively slows metabolism that some persons have been revived after a half hour under water.