Dead for 45 minutes; an interesting near-death experience

[downbeatplumb]

45 minutes clinically dead? ... Am I missing something here? This is the wiki on clinical death : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_death It is hard to believe that a doctor would continue to try and resuscitate her for so long.

As far as I know about 5 minutes of oxygen depravation to the brain, you get serious brain damage. 45 minutes sounds unlikely, I mean, most of her brain would be gone by then. Until I see someone publishes a case study on her, I'm not buying it.

I found this.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/science...-death.htm

In 1991, Atlanta, Ga. resident Pam Reynolds had a near-death experience (NDE). Reynolds underwent surgery for a brain aneurysm, and the procedure required doctors to drain all the blood from her brain. Reynolds was kept literally brain-dead by the surgical team for a full 45 minutes.

Which seems to say that they were prepared for the lack of brain function. I presume by cooling or whatever they could slow down decay. (I am no brain surgeon).

It lends weight to being a true event by proposing a reasonable scientific explanation.

The Kentucky researchers believe that NDEs are actually REM intrusions triggered in the brain by traumatic events like cardiac arrest. If this is true, then this means the experiences of some people following near-death are confusion from suddenly and unexpectedly entering a dream-like state.
This theory helps explain what has always been a tantalizing aspect of the mystery of NDEs: how people can experience sights and sounds after confirmed brain death. The area where REM intrusion is triggered is found in the brain stem -- the region that controls the most basic functions of the body -- and it can operate virtually independent from the higher brain. So even after the higher regions of the brain are dead, the brain stem can conceivably continue to function, and REM intrusion could still occur