So I just read an article about Velma Thomas which supposedly holds a record for being dead for 17 hours then coming back to life after she was taken off life support.
The articles I found are barren of details, but they all say she was brain dead for 17 hours; How is that possible?
I have no idea how all that works, but we were taught in school that after a minute without oxygen, brain cells start dying and after 10 minutes you’re brain dead with immense and irreversible brain damage and the only way you could “live” was being kept artificially alive by a machine
So how on earth could this woman be brain dead for 17 hours with no oxygen going to the brain, just to wake up and continue living completely healthy with no brain damage?
I found nothing proving it but also nothing disproving it and find it confusing, thanks in advance to anyone who can dumb it down for me
In: Biology
I’ve never heard of this and am not a doctor but I’m not reading that she was brain dead for 17 hours. She had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital, and had two more attacks and was put on a ventilator. She was clinically dead for that period of time and her heart wasn’t beating regularly, but a ventilator kept her the oxygen flowing.
https://m.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/mind-and-spirit/article-723099
It should be noted that “brain dead” doesn’t mean that there was no oxygen going to her brain, rather that they couldn’t detect brain activity during that time. She was on life support so her brain would have had a supply of blood and oxygen going to it. Allegedly they also lowered her body temperature after putting her on life support to try to preserve brain function.
Prior to being brought to the hospital and being put on life support, medics performed CPR and was able to establish a faint pulse.
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