December 18, 2007

Cells live on after death

It used be the when someone died from an heart attack, brain death would quickly follow within a few minutes and that was it, but research has found that cells still live for up to an hour after the oxygen supply has been cut off.

Which begs the question if someone dies of a heart attack why can’t they be revived up to an hour later? The answer is simple; it is the oxygen that kills the cells! Which is why when someone has an attack in the street, when they get to the hospital the first thing that is given is oxygen and then the heart is restarted, but the patient invariably dies.

However researchers believe that there could be a way of reviving someone whose heart has stopped, by bring them back slowly, using a reduced amount of oxygen and adjusting the blood chemistry. This is really early days on, but the team from the University of California are working a way to do this.

Source [Newsweek]