How do modern docs make sure someone's dead before they send them to the morgue?

Question

what are the chances someone gets sent to the morgue prematurely?

Answer 1

no pulse and no breathing=dead person.

it isn't very likely as medicine is pretty advanced these days.

Answer 2

They check their pockets for loose change. If they don't wake...they must be dead.

Answer 3

The only times that this comes into play is in the cases of hypothermia. Because of the mammalian diving response, it's possible that someone could be submerged in ice water for several hours, and still live.

Your body shuts down, and somehow regulates a trickle of oxygen to your brain to keep it alive. You may have heard about it on the news or in the paper. When the body drops below 96 degrees, shivering stops and they look pretty dead.

We have a saying in these cases, "they're not dead until they are warm and dead." There are a variety of techniques to rewarm people safely and hopefully without too much damage to their body (and brain).

Answer 4

As previously suggested, no breathing and no pulse. But furthermore, if their electrocardiogram warrants a shock to the heart to restart the heart, all is not lost. And, even beyond that, doctors can administer drugs to accentuate the heart's ability to restart a continuous beat.

The chances that someone is sent to the morgue prematurely is almost non-existent. Physicians exhaust all possible resources before calling the time of death.

Answer 5

They feel for a pulse on the neck and also listen for a heart beat.

Answer 6

As you occasionally read in the papers, such incidents happen. As a very green intern I admitted an elderly stroke victim with chronic emphysema and advanced atherosclerosis. He was paralyzed from the stroke. His tidal volume was minimal, so there were no audible breath sounds. Pulses were absent and his barrel chest made the heart sounds practically inaudible, especially on a noisy 30 bed ward. Our EKG machine was antiquated and the electric wiring on the ward was from the 1940s, so the 60 cycle hum (60 Hz in modern parlance) was horrendous. To top it all, my chief resident was unsympathetic with my plight. It was then that I decided to spend my career in pediatrics. Fortunately for me the patient died when another intern was on shift.

Answer 7

They are generally the ones who killed them, so .. they know for sure (J/K).

On a more serious note, the chances someone goes to the morgues alive are very slim, the doctor checks heart beats, iris response, blood pressure, respiration, and other reflexes (and sometimes the brains activity).