Recent content by dbooksta

Thank you again -- that's very informative! Part of my erroneous assumption was that the brain stem would continue functioning until death, which is on the order of minutes. It sounds like the reality is that even the stem begins to go "unconscious" as quickly as the higher-level brain --...

Thanks, and I apologize for any butchered terminology. It sounds like you're repeating something that is well-known (but above my level of training): "Don't confuse [agonal respiration] with breathing, the patient is not breathing, they are in cardiac arrest." I.e., it sounds like you're...

I've been wondering whether self-breathing can be used as an indicator of effective CPR. I've been told that people don't continue breathing after effective heart function stops because the diaphragm quickly runs out of oxygen. Is this correct? Or, during a heart failure, is there some other...