Death is a state of the body in which vital organs cease to function. As a result, irreversible destruction processes occur at the intracellular level. There are different types of death, stages, characteristics and diagnostic methods. Let's consider them in more detail.
General information
Death, the concept, the types of this condition are considered by people since ancient times. The mystery of the cessation of life always frightened society and forced it to somehow justify this phenomenon. In ancient times, religion contributed to this. Today, people are more pragmatic about the fact of death. Currently, the phenomenon is studied by science, primarily in order to gain knowledge about life extension. In the study of irreversible changes occurring both during and after death, scientists are trying to identify the reasons why they occur. The main goal is to identify ways to slow down processes that shorten life.
Types of Biological Death
The natural termination of life is caused, for example, by the onset of a certain (advanced) age. In this case, it is assumed that death occurred by itself, that is, non-violently. Meanwhile, the cessation of life may be due to external factors. For example, an assault by another entity. In this case, the study of the circumstances of the death of a person is carried out by the forensics.
Types of violent death are classified according to certain criteria. First of all, the external characteristics of the body are distinguished. Types, signs of death are of practical importance in the investigation of crimes. For example, the death of a subject can occur from a blow with a blunt object, a shot from a firearm, beatings inflicted with particular cruelty. Types of causing death directly affect the amount of punishment for the perpetrator.
Stages
At the biological level, death occurs in three stages:
- At the first stage, for some hidden or noticeable factors, inhibition of the functions of the organs responsible for blood circulation and respiration begins. The operability of these systems, however, does not stop. It is simply not enough to meet the body's oxygen requirements.
- At the second stage, self-regulation begins. In the course of it, internal processes are activated, which compensate for the inhibition of the functioning of organs. In this condition, muscle tissue begins to contract. This leads to increased breathing. The last internal resources of the body are activated.
- At the last stage, clinical death occurs. In this state, the heart and breathing stop. Clinical death can last from 2 minutes to half an hour. Everything will depend on external and other factors. During this period, the last reserves of oxygen are consumed for oxidative reactions inside the cells. After that, nerve tissue begins to collapse.
Terminal states
Any kind of human death occurs after certain stages. In the complex, they can last from several minutes / hours to several days. The terminal conditions are the pre-agonal stage, agony and, in fact, clinical death. The latter is present in any case, regardless of the rate of termination of the functioning of the vital functions of the body. In this condition, there is a chance to prevent death. For this, resuscitation measures are provided . If they were not performed or were ineffective, the life of the body ceases.
Types, signs of death: predagonal state
It is accompanied by a violation of the central nervous system, a decrease in pressure, centralization of blood circulation. The patient has respiratory failure. It becomes irregular, shallow, possibly more frequent. Due to a lack of ventilation in the lungs, a deficiency of oxygen in the tissues occurs. Moreover, oxidative reactions remain as the main metabolic process. The duration of the pre-diagonal state varies. It may be completely absent. This occurs, for example, with severe mechanical damage to the heart. The predagonal state can last quite a long time. For example, if the body can somehow compensate for the attenuation of vital functions.
Agony
It is an attempt by the body to use the last resources with the oppressed functions of vital systems. At the beginning of this stage, pressure rises, the heart rhythm begins to recover, and active respiratory movements are carried out. Meanwhile, the lungs are practically not ventilated. At the same time, the contraction of the respiratory muscles responsible for exhalation and inhalation begins. For a short time, consciousness can be restored. Due to oxygen deficiency, products that do not undergo oxidation begin to accumulate rapidly in the tissues. Metabolic processes proceed according to anaerobic scheme.
In a state of agony due to burning in ATP tissues, a person loses a lock of 50-80 g of his mass. They are also called the "weight of the soul." As a rule, the agony does not last long - no more than 5-6 minutes. In rare cases, it can last half an hour. After this, a decrease in pressure begins, contractions of the heart muscle stop, breathing stops.
Last stage
The duration of the clinical estimate is from the moment the heart, central nervous system and respiration cease to the start of irreversible changes in the brain. Anaerobic metabolism in this case continues due to the reserves accumulated in the cells. Once these resources run out, the nerve tissue dies. In the absolute absence of oxygen, necrosis of cells in the cerebral cortex and cerebellum begins after 2-2.5 minutes. These departments are most sensitive to O 2 deficiency. After the death of the cortex, the restoration of life-supporting functions is impossible. As a result, biological death occurs .
Features
With effective resuscitation measures, the duration of clinical death is usually taken to be the time that has passed from cardiac arrest to the beginning of the body's return to life. Modern methods, such as, for example, maintaining blood pressure at the minimum necessary level, purifying blood, mechanical ventilation, transfusion or donor blood circulation, allow you to maintain life in the nervous tissue for a sufficiently long period.
Under normal conditions, clinical death lasts no more than 5-6 minutes. Its duration is influenced by many factors. In particular, this is the cause, type of death, body temperature, level of excitation of the body, age, conditions in which the subject was, and so on. In some cases, this stage can last up to 30 minutes. For example, such types of human death as drowning in cold water, severe frostbite allow this. In these situations, due to the lowered temperature, metabolic processes, including those in the brain, are significantly slowed down. With the help of artificial preventive hypothermia, the duration of the stage can be increased to 2 hours.
At the same time, under the influence of certain circumstances, some types of clinical death are of shorter duration. For example, this happens if death occurs due to large blood loss. In this situation, pathological changes in the nervous tissue, due to which it is impossible to restore life, develop until cardiac arrest.
Classification specifics
Despite the fact that the problem of termination of life remains completely unsolved, in medicine for a long time the types of death are differentiated according to a number of criteria. First of all, categories are distinguished. There are two of them - violent and non-violent death. The genus is the second criterion. According to him, the following types of nonviolent death are distinguished:
- Physiological.
- Pathological
- Suddenly.
There is a classification by gender and to terminate life due to external factors. So, such types of violent death are distinguished as:
- Murder.
- Suicide.
- Death in an accident.
Additional category
2 types of death have been described above. The classification into two categories was adopted a long time ago and existed for a rather long time. Modern medicine distinguishes 3 types of death. Currently, brain death is being considered as a separate state. It should be said that this category is also not fully understood, like other types of clinical death.
Diagnosis
One of the most difficult stages of classification is the stage of identifying the cause of death. It can be primary, intermediate and immediate. Scientists, fearing to make a mistake in diagnosis, created special life tests or formed special burial conditions. For example, in Munich for more than a century there was a tomb, where the deceased’s hand was wrapped with a cord from the bell. He rang only once. As it turned out, this happened due to the resolution of rigor mortis. Meanwhile, in practice, more than one case is known when the living were brought to the morgue, which doctors mistakenly diagnosed types of mild death.
Respiratory function test
Types of death are ascertained by a set of criteria. As one of them is a test of the function of the respiratory system. To date, there are no reliable signs of its safety. Depending on the external conditions, doctors use fluff, a cold mirror, and carry out auscultation of breathing. A Vinslov test is also used. It consists in placing a vessel with water on a person’s chest. By the fluctuation of its level, respiratory movements are judged. At the same time, a gust of wind, high humidity in the room, passing vehicles, elevated temperatures can affect the results of any of the studies. Accordingly, the conclusions will be incorrect.
Preservation of the function of the heart system
When diagnosing types of death, doctors perform auscultation of the heart, palpation of the pulse of peripheral and central vessels, as well as a heart beat. However, these studies cannot be considered completely reliable. Evidence and quite interesting even in the presence of minimal blood circulation is a Magnus test. It consists of a tight pull of a finger. In the presence of blood circulation, blanching of the cover will be noted, a cyanotic hue will appear on the periphery. When the banner is removed, the skin color will be restored.
Preservation of the central nervous system
This indicator is the most important for doctors diagnosing certain types of death. At the scene, it is fundamentally impossible to ascertain the death of the brain. The safety of the central nervous system is checked by the absence or presence of consciousness, muscle relaxation, passive position of the body, reaction to an external stimulus (ammonia or minor pain effects). An informative sign is the corneal reflex. It shows the presence / absence of the reaction of the pupil to light.