Clinical death is a state of transition from life to death. It is reversible. A person who is in this state, under a certain set of circumstances and with competent rescue operations, can be brought back to life.
That is why it is necessary to know the rules for dealing with the injured. And above all, it is important to correctly and very quickly recognize clinical death. Why distinguish between signs of clinical death? To save a person’s life.
When it occurs, the cessation of cardiac activity occurs. The breathing stops, all the observed manifestations of life disappear.
It is important to know that from this moment the rescuer has no more than 4 minutes (an early period of clinical death) in order to regain the life of the departing. During this time, the lack of oxygen in the brain does not yet lead to fatal changes in the body.
Signs of clinical death are apnea, asystole, coma. These signs appear only in its early period and lose their meaning after the onset of the irreversible stage - biological death. The less time has passed from the establishment of a clinical death to the start of resuscitation, the more likely the patient's life will be saved. Therefore, in a threatening state, diagnostic and therapeutic actions are conducted in parallel.
- Apnea (lack of breathing) can be seen with the naked eye. The chest ceases to rise and fall.
You should not spend precious seconds applying thread, mirrors or cotton wool to the external respiratory organs. No one knows for sure at what second clinical death will give way to biological.
- Asystole (lack of pulse in two cervical carotid arteries) also does not tolerate a protracted effect. It is enough to put both hands with palms to the neck, under the ears on the right and left. If there is no pulse, clinical death is likely to have taken place. Do not waste time probing the radial arteries in your hands. Even before checking the pulse, it is worthwhile to give the patient artificial breaths and mouth-to-mouth breaths (this first aid technique is widely known).
- Coma is a loss of consciousness. Pupils are dilated and do not respond to light.
How to reanimate?
- Place the victim on his back, on a hard surface.
- Pull the tongue forward from the mouth. If there is a foreign body in the upper respiratory tract (a foreign object that accidentally gets there), take it out as well. Head back to the patient. Chin up slightly and forward. The position of the lower jaw is advanced.
- Pulmonary ventilation is carried out by mouth.
Do not forget about indirect heart massage. Find the lower edge of the sternum (midline). Go up 2 centimeters (also the middle line). Here is the point to be compressed.
- Palm (right hand) touch the point of pressing.
- Put the other palm (left hand) on the right palm. Keep your hands straight.
- To spread the “fan” from the fingers of both hands, to touch the body with only palms!
- Squeeze to a depth of approximately 3.5 centimeters and release.
- If there are two resuscitators, compress the chest 5 times in 1 breath.
- If there is one resuscitator, compress 15 times with two breaths.
If resuscitation is successful, the pupil will begin to taper to light, a pulse will appear on the carotid arteries, the face skin will turn pink, breathing will become independent.
There are other signs of clinical death - in a more optimistic classification. They can be observed if it was possible with first aid measures to save the life of the victim.
In this case, clinical death is considered as two-stage.
At the first stage, described above, three to five minutes are allotted to the resuscitator for first aid, saving the life of the patient. During the first stage, the most important parts of the brain remain viable, despite oxygen starvation.
If resuscitation is prolonged, the cerebral cortex, or even all its parts, dies. Such a patient will be able to live for a long time on the apparatus of artificial respiration and mechanical ventilation. But he will never regain consciousness. The rest of his life (which can last for many years), he will spend in a deep coma, which brought him clinical death. Signs of it, in this case, will change somewhat: the patient will breathe.
When should biological death be recognized? Clinical and biological death are links in one chain.
If resuscitation measures could not be carried out or they were not successful, signs of clinical death give way to a biological death picture: all physiological processes cease in all tissues and cells of the body.