Doctor reveals what some patients experienced after being declared clinically dead

Sometimes the body stops before the brain does.

A study published in Resuscitation suggests that consciousness may persist even after the heart has ceased beating. Reporting cited by the Daily Mail describes findings indicating that patients who are clinically dead, defined by cardiac arrest, may still retain measurable brain activity during resuscitation.

The research was led by Dr Sam Parnia of NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. His team studied 53 survivors of cardiac arrest across 25 hospitals in the United States and the United Kingdom. Many of those revived reported vivid memories from the period when their hearts were not beating.




Parnia previously told The Post that researchers detected “normal and near-normal brain activity found up to an hour into resuscitation.” He said: “We were not only able to show the markers of lucid consciousness, we were also able to show that these experiences are unique and universal. They’re different from dreams, illusions and delusions.”

Around 40% of participants described some level of awareness. According to Parnia: “In death, they have a perception that they are separate from their body, and then they can move around. But they’re in that [hospital] room and they’re gathering information. They felt that they were fully conscious.”

Electroencephalogram (EEG) readings recorded spikes in gamma, delta, theta, alpha and beta brain waves, patterns associated with thinking and awareness, between 35 and 60 minutes after cardiac arrest.

In a statement, Parnia said: “Although doctors have long thought that the brain suffers permanent damage about 10 minutes after the heart stops supplying it with oxygen, our work found that the brain can show signs of electrical recovery long into ongoing CPR.”

He further explained: “As the brain shuts down, because of a lack of blood flow in death, the normal braking systems in the brain are removed, known as disinhibition. This enables people to have access to their entire consciousness. All their thoughts, memories, all their emotional states, everything that they’ve ever done, which they relive through the perspective of morality and ethics.”