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When you die you know you’re dead as your brain keeps working for some time, research shows

Haunting new research indicates we will actually know when we have died, because our brains keep working after the heart stops.
Experts say our brains keep working for some time after we die.Source:Getty Images

Experts say our brains keep working for some time after we die.Source:Getty Images

We know we are dead when we die because our brains keep working to make us aware of what’s happening around us, haunting new research suggests.

Top medical experts have forever been at loggerheads over what happens when humans die, with anecdotal evidence of bright lights and flashes reported by people who have “come back” being the cause of much debate.

It is plausible that dead people could even hear themselves being pronounced dead.
It is plausible that dead people could even hear themselves being pronounced dead.Source:Getty Image

However, a new study suggests your consciousness carries on functioning after your heart stops beating and your body movements fail.

This means you are essentially “trapped” inside your dead body with your brain still working, if only for a short time.

Survivors of cardiac arrest were aware of what was going on around them while they were “dead” before being “brought back to life”, the study revealed.

More surprising still, there is evidence to suggest the deceased may even hear themselves being pronounced dead by doctors.

Dr Sam Parnia is studying consciousness after death and examining cardiac arrest cases in Europe and the United States.

He says people in the first phase of death may still experience some form of consciousness.

The expert ventured that people who have survived cardiac arrest later accurately described what was happening around them after their hearts stopped beating.

He said: “They’ll describe watching doctors and nurses working, they’ll describe having awareness of full conversations, of visual things that were going on, that would otherwise not be known to them.”

Dr Sam Parnia is studying consciousness after death and examining cardiac arrest cases in Europe and the US.
Dr Sam Parnia is studying consciousness after death and examining cardiac arrest cases in Europe and the US.Source:Supplie

Explaining when a patient is officially declared dead, he said: “It’s all based on the moment when the heart stops.

“Technically speaking, that’s how you get the time of death.”

His study is examining what happens to the brain after a person goes into cardiac arrest — and whether consciousness continues after death and for how long — to improve the quality of resuscitation and prevent brain injuries while restarting the heart.

Unlike the plot in the film Flatliners, however, when a person is resuscitated they don’t return with a “magical enhancement” of their memories, said Dr Parnia.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and is republished with permission.

Source: News Corp Australia Network:

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