I'm (only a little bit) sorry to be so pedantic, but I've grown weary of this modern misuse of death for hyperbolic effect.
You didn't die. You weren't dead and you aren't now resurrected. You experienced a very serious medical event, and you almost died, but didn't. Even metaphorically, you didn't die: you're still around. Robert Pirsig can claim that Phaedrus died; you cannot, because you're still here.
I don't know why this small untruth bothers me so, but it really does.
While I get the point you're trying to make, and even somewhat agree with it, there are two definitions of "death" in play. The problem isn't hyperbole; it's simply one of equivocating between them.
There's clinical death, which the author of TFA very likely did experience. If VF continues for anything longer than a few seconds, asystole frequently occurs. Among other things, asystole is definitive of "clinical death."
On the other hand, there's death death. This is the one where we bury you and mourn you and so-on.
Yes, they're very much not the same thing. Yes, the author is probably equivocating between them, at least a little. But no, his describing what he experienced as "death" is not hyperbolic — at least not according to the clinical definition.
This past week I was listening to a paranormal radio show where they discussed these different definitions.
They claimed in the early 1800's people would be brought into large rooms after they had passed, and were put on tables until the corpse was literally rotting before burying them. This had to do with cultural fears of being buried alive and having people who were supposedly "dead" waking back up in their coffins.
It was a rather long, but very interesting discussion. I'll try and find the podcast.
Historically, when someone died and was going to be buried at sea, they'd be sewn into a sailcloth "coffin", the last stitch of which would be through the nasal septum, just to make sure.
> If VF continues for anything longer than a few seconds, asystole frequently occurs. Among other things, asystole is definitive of "clinical death."
This isn't true. VFib can persist for a long time (at least 20 minutes, maybe more). Furthermore, defibrillators aren't applied to an asystole heart. Nor do practitioners typically continue working after clinical death has been declared.
"In medicine, asystole, colloquially known as flatline, is a state of no cardiac electrical activity, hence no contractions of the myocardium and no cardiac output or blood flow."[1]
vs
"Ventricular fibrillation (V-fib or VF) is a condition in which there is uncoordinated contraction of the cardiac muscle of the ventricles in the heart, making them quiver rather than contract properly."[2]
By definition, if vfib is occuring, asystole isn't.
I'm aware of what both mean, and that you can't be in both states. It's the highlighted words whose incompatibility I'm questioning. That VFib can last minutes in some cases doesn't mean that it doesn't quickly lead to asystole in others.
In fact, quoting from the linked Wikipedia article on VF, "If this arrhythmia continues for more than a few seconds, it will likely degenerate further into asystole ('flatline')."
The incorrectness in your claim was the use of the word "frequently". VFib does not "frequently" become asystole after a few seconds. It generally continues for several minutes. 2% of people who enter asystole ever recover; far more than 2% of people who enter vfib and stay there for more than "a few seconds" recover.
Wikipedia seems to be missing an "eventually" in the sentence you quoted. The arrhythmia can persist for several minutes, but if it persists for more than a few seconds it will likely eventually generate into asystole without medical intervention.
far more than 2% of people who enter vfib and stay there for more than "a few seconds" recover.
How many more? If it's less than, say, 60 or 70% or something, then I don't think "frequently" is terribly inapt. One-in-three is pretty damned frequent, when the one, you know, dies.
You're bickering a lot throughout this thread with people who have training and education. I was a certified EMT and have vetted these facts with my wife, who's a veterinarian.
This shouldn't be a long, drawn out battle. You said something that was incorrect--perhaps even dangerously so, since your misreading of Wikipedia could lead people to respond inappropriately in an emergency. Ventricular fibrillation is not a death sentence, but your claim made it out to be so, and needed to be corrected.
At this point I think the facts have been sufficiently cleared up and you're just being unnecessarily defensive and argumentative. Please stop.
What that means is that if VF doesn't correct itself, and is left alone, it will eventually degenerate into asystole - which is the whole point of CPR and defibs, to do something before it does that.
People have arrhythmias all the time and they autocorrect, but if a VF doesn't autocorrect in relatively short order, it will usually, eventually, end in death (or asystole). It's not about one rhythm versus another, it's about one rhythm leading to another, with no set timeline.
I quit my job yesterday. In the evening, I just walked out of my office and straight home. While at home, I did absolutely no work for my former employer. I was unemployed for more than twelve hours. Then this morning, I returned to work and am now employed again.
You didn't die. You weren't dead and you aren't now resurrected. You experienced a very serious medical event, and you almost died, but didn't. Even metaphorically, you didn't die: you're still around. Robert Pirsig can claim that Phaedrus died; you cannot, because you're still here.
I don't know why this small untruth bothers me so, but it really does.