Health@Heart
Reviving the 'Dead'
One of the most exciting new frontiers in medicine today is the research on the probability that medical science could revive the "dead." Sounds like blasphemy, irreverence, or total fiction? Not quite. It's purely medical science to show the God-given special attributes of His creation, called Life, that is yet to be discovered by man.
Our present thinking is that, unless cardiopulmonary resuscitation is done within 4-5 minutes following a respiratory of cardiac arrest, death ensues. Our definition of clinical death states that life is gone when the heartbeat, breathing and brain activity are no longer present, in spite of timely, aggressive, and proper resuscitation, in the hands of trained healthcare professionals.
Our medical understanding of "death" may be too myopic and erroneous. Researchers are now theorizing that death should mean "cell death," which is final, and that as long as body cells are still alive, there is still a chance to bring back life to one who is declared technically "dead."
There are now scientific evidences to show that after the heart, lungs and brain have stopped functioning immediately following trauma, heart attack, or any other condition, the body cells do not actually die until after a couple of hours, or longer. The cells, especially brain cells, merely shut down or "hibernate" to conserve oxygen and nutrients, and still have the ability to be "awaken." While the outward and obvious manifestation of death is present in these cases, and apparent external signs of life are gone, some scientists believe that a change in our understanding of death, and its finality, and revising our current Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) technique, are vital to our potential success in reviving the "dead."
This accepted dogma went unchallenged until scientists microscopically examined the oxygen-starved heart cells and were amazed at what they discovered.
"After one hour," according to Dr. Lance Becker, an authority on emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, "we couldn't see evidence the cells had died….in fact, cells cut off from their blood supply died only hours later."
If this was the case, why can't we revive someone who had been dead for an hour? The new scientific theory postulates that "once cells have been without oxygen for more than five minutes, they finally die when their oxygen supply is resumed immediately, if the body has not been sufficiently cooled down to a low temperature that will protect the cells of the brain, heart, and other vital organs in the body." A good proof of this is seen among those who drowned in a lake or body of water that is cold, as in winter time. These "dead" victims have better chances of being resuscitated and brought back to life, especially the young ones, because the cool body temperature has lowered the body metabolism to protect the vitals organs while they were not getting oxygen. When the body is re-warmed slowly to the normal level as oxygen is given at a normal rate, the success rate of CPR is significantly much higher.
This fantastic discovery has led Dr. Becker to pursue this new concept as Director of Penn's Center for Resuscitation Science, "a newly created research institute operating on one of medicine's newest frontier: treating the dead."
"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."
All this seems to suggest that our standard CPR in an emergency setting has it exactly backwards. When one suffers a cardiac arrest and is lucky, he will have an instant CPR, maintaining blood circulation until he gets to the hospital where he can be revived. But the others who have no, or delayed, CPR, beyond 10 to 15 minutes, will not have any heart beat when they arrive in the hospital. And then the oxygen is given at a high rate and the heart is jolted by an electrical defibrillator, and adrenalin is given to force the heart to beat. The blood (oxygen) starved heart muscles are flooded with oxygen, a situation "that leads to cell death."
"Instead," Becker says, "we should aim to reduce oxygen uptake, slow metabolism (by cooling the patient to minimize the chemical reactions touched off by reperfusion) and adjust the blood chemistry for gradual and safe reperfusion (re-circulation of blood and re-oxygenation)."
A study in 4 hospitals, published in 2006 by the university of California, "showed remarkable rate of success in treating sudden cardiac arrest with an approach that involved, among other things, a ‘cardioplegic' blood infusion to keep the heart in suspended animation…connecting the patient to a heart-lung bypass machine to lower the body temperature (down to 37 or 33 degree Celsius) and to maintain circulation and oxygenation to the brain and other vital organs until the heart could be safely restarted. There were 34 patients, and 80% (27) of them survived and were discharged from the hospital, compared to the 10-15% revival rate using the traditional CPR.
"In an emergency department, you work like mad for half an hour on someone whose heart stopped, and finally someone says, 'I don't think we're going to get this guy back,' and then you just stop…The body on the cart is dead, but its trillions of cells are all still alive," says Becker.
This is certainly an exciting new frontier in medicine…but more clinical studies are needed to prove the theory is correct and valid, before it becomes a standard. I am simply dying to know the final verdict.