Word: heartfully
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People commonly perceive death as being a moment - you're either dead or you're alive. And that's a social definition we have. But the clinical definition we use is when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working, and as a consequence the brain itself stops working. When doctors shine a light into someone's pupil, it's to demonstrate that there is no reflex present. The eye reflex is mediated by the brain stem, and that's the area that keeps us alive; if that doesn't work, then that means that the brain itself...
...fact, there are drugs being developed right now - who knows if they'll ever make it to the market - that may actually slow down the process of brain-cell injury and death. Imagine you fast-forward to 10 years down the line; and you've given a patient, whose heart has just stopped, this amazing drug; and actually what it does is, it slows everything down so that the things that would've happened over an hour, now happen over two days. As medicine progresses, we will end up with lots and lots of ethical questions...
...there is a lack of blood flow, the cells go into a kind of a frenzy to keep themselves alive. And within about 5 min. or so they start to damage or change. After an hour or so the damage is so great that even if we restart the heart again and pump blood, the person can no longer be viable, because the cells have just been changed too much. And then the cells continue to change so that within a couple of days the body actually decomposes. So it's not a moment; it's a process that actually...
...Young at Heart Thanks heaps for the story on the jonas Brothers [Sept. 15]. They are my favorite band ever. Your magazine caters for a younger audience than I thought (I'm 14). Rock on, TIME! Aira Abarra, Melbourne...
...issues before us require both a hunger for truth and a humility about recognizing it, because progress can sprint right past our ability to process it. Blood transfusions were considered creepy before World War II. Transplant a heart? That's not just a pump, critics said; it's the seat of your soul. You hardly ever hear the chilly term test-tube baby anymore, because what was once odd and unnatural is now a routine salvation to millions of childless couples...