How death comes. How to survive the last hours with a loved one? Dead in the mountains

Death is a topic that causes fear, sympathy, experience and pain in people. At the same time, sooner or later everyone will have to face it. If there is a hopelessly ill person with oncology in the house, after a stroke, paralyzed or an old person, relatives are interested in what are the symptoms and harbingers of impending care, how the dying person behaves. It is important to know what happens when the end of life comes, what to say to a loved one at death, how to help and what to do to alleviate his suffering. This will help mentally and physically prepare for the death of a bedridden patient.

How people feel and how they behave before death

When a person dies, they feel inner sorrow. He is tormented, his soul shrinks from the inside at the thought that the end is near. A dying person necessarily undergoes changes in the functioning of the body. This manifests itself emotionally and physically. Often the dying person becomes withdrawn and does not want to see anyone, falls into depression, loses interest in life.

It's hard to watch these close people. It is clearly seen how the loss of the soul by the body occurs, while there is no need to become a psychic. The symptoms of death are pronounced.

The patient sleeps a lot, refuses to eat. At the same time, global failures occur in the work of vital organs and systems.

Before death, a person may feel a sense of relief, especially for cancer patients. He seems to be getting better. Relatives notice an uplifting mood, a smile on their faces.

However, after some time, the state changes dramatically for the worse. Soon the bedridden patient is waiting for the relaxation of the body. The functions of the organs of the body will sharply weaken. After that, the process of dying begins.

As for the care of older people (grandparents), the feelings before death will be different from those that are inherent in people suffering from, say, cancer of the 4th degree. Scientists argue that the older a person is, the less afraid of dying, although the number of factors from which he can die increases. Some even want to bring death closer so that their loved ones do not see how he suffers. Before death, the elderly have indifference, discomfort, and sometimes pain. Every 20 people have a spiritual uplift.

How a person dies: signs

The approach of death is understood by clearly manifested signs. From them you can determine what death looks like, how death happens.

Changing sleep patterns

Many are interested in what it means if an elderly person sleeps a lot. The last weeks of life of oncological and other seriously ill, dying old people devote a lot of time to sleep. It's not just that there is a strong weakness and fatigue. People lose strength very quickly, it is difficult for them to get out of sleep, in which it becomes easier physically, pain and discomfort decrease.

Therefore, in those who will soon die, after awakening and in the state of wakefulness, an inhibited reaction is noted.

Weakness and drowsiness cause all metabolic processes in the body to slow down. Against this background, there are difficulties with the fulfillment of physiological needs.

Weakness

Another sign that means the onset of the death of a person is weakness. We are talking about severe exhaustion, accompanied by weight loss, chronic fatigue. The situation comes to the point that a person tends to lie down, loses the ability to stand on his feet, do elementary things: roll over in bed, hold a spoon, and so on.

In cancer patients, this symptom is associated with intoxication of the body and the development of necrosis - the death of tissues affected by cancer cells.

The nose is pointed

Before an imminent death, the nose is pointed - this is one of the secondary signs. It means that the death of a loved one is near. Among the ancestors, when the nose is extended or pointed, it was said that the dying person put on a “mask of death”.

The patient, who has only a few hours left, falls into the eyes, temples. The ears become cold and lethargic, the tips turn forward.

The face before death is symmetrical, the skin acquires a grayish or yellowish tint. Changes are also noted on the forehead. The skin in this area is stretched and becomes rough.

sense organs

Before death, a person loses the ability to hear. This is due to a sharp drop in pressure to a minimum. Therefore, instead of the usual sounds, he hears a squeak, a strong ringing, extraneous sounds. Critical indicators at what pressure death occurs are indicators of 50 to 20 millimeters of mercury.

The organs of vision also undergo changes. A dying person before his death hides his eyes from the light. The organs of vision are very watery, and mucus accumulates in the corners. Proteins turn red, and the vessels in them turn white. Often doctors observe a situation where the right eye is different in size from the left. The organs of vision may sink.

At night, when a person is sleeping, the eyes may be open. If this happens constantly, then the organs of vision should be treated with moisturizing ointments or drops.

If the pupils are open during the night's rest, the eyelids and the skin around the eyes are pale yellowish. This shade goes to the forehead, the nasolabial triangle (the triangle of death), which indicates the imminent death of a person. Especially when these signs are combined with deafness and blindness.

A dying person has impaired tactile sensations. A few hours before death, they practically disappear. A person does not feel the touch of loved ones, he can hear extraneous sounds, visions often appear. According to relatives who watched the death of a loved one, hallucinations are most often associated with dead people. At the same time, a long dialogue takes place between them.

If a person sees dead relatives, one should not think that he has gone mad. Relatives should support him and not deny the connection with the other world. This is useless and may offend the dying person, who may find it easier to accept his own departure in this way.

Refusal to eat

If the patient stopped eating, does not drink water, this period is the most difficult for relatives. He indicates that the end is near. The metabolism of a dying person slows down. The reason is the constant stay in the supine state. The nutrients necessary for proper functioning cease to enter the body. He begins to expend his own resources - fat. That is why relatives note that the dying man has lost a lot of weight.

Man cannot live long without food. If the dying person cannot swallow, doctors prescribe the use of special probes to deliver food to the gastrointestinal tract. Glucose and a complex of vitamins are also prescribed.

If a person refuses food, do not force him. This way you can only do harm. It is enough to give him small portions of water. If he refuses her, then relatives should at least lubricate her lips with it to prevent the formation of cracks.

"Collects" himself

A sign means the desire of dying people to straighten their blankets, clothes, straighten them. Some doctors and relatives say that a person moves his hands around him, as if clearing the body and space from non-existent straws and threads. Some try to throw off the cover or use gestures to ask others to take off their clothes.

There was a sign among the ancestors: if a terminally ill person begins to “rob himself”, he will soon die. And before leaving, he tries to return to a state of purity, to free the body from everything superfluous and unnecessary.

Temporary improvement

If a person feels that the condition is improving, relatives should understand that it may indicate the approach of death. In medicine, this phenomenon is called "death improvement" or "neurochemical oscillation." Until now, numerous studies are being carried out on this subject. Doctors still cannot find out the true cause of this condition. Therefore, many believe that otherworldly forces are involved in this. The phenomenon is more often observed in patients with cancer.

The body always fights the disease to the last, spending all its strength and resources on this. Before his death, he works at full strength. At the same time, other functions weaken - motor, motor, etc.

When the body's strength runs out, its protection is turned off. At the same time, the functions are activated. The person becomes active, mobile, talkative.

In medical practice, there have been cases when a person who has been lying in bed for a long time wanted to get up, go outside, but after a few hours death occurred.

Stool and urinary disorders

If a seriously ill person does not pass urine, this is due to the fact that the supply of water is reduced or completely absent, with malfunctions in the filtration function of the kidneys. Violation causes a change in color, a decrease in the amount of biological fluid. Urine acquires dark yellow, brown, reddish hues. It contains a huge amount of toxins that poison the body.

At one point, the kidneys may stop functioning. And if you do not provide an ambulance to the patient, then in the near future he will die.

A person who is near death is very weak and unable to control urination on his own. Therefore, the way for him to go to the toilet and not burden his relatives once again is to purchase diapers or a duck.

At the end of life, the bladder is hardly emptied, problems with the intestines join. Involuntary cleansing occurs due to the inability to go big on your own.

Sometimes people in whose house a seriously ill or elderly person dies believe that constipation is normal. However, the accumulation of feces in the intestines and their hardening lead to abdominal pain, from which a person suffers even more. If he does not go to the toilet for 2 days, in this case, they turn to the doctor to prescribe mild laxatives.

Strong drugs with a laxative effect should not be given to the patient. This leads to another problem - loose stools, diarrhea.

thermoregulation

Those who cared for the seriously ill, focus on the fact that before death they were sweating all the time. The fact is that a violation of thermoregulation is a sign of approaching death. The dying person's body temperature rises, then it drops sharply. The extremities become cold, the skin becomes pale or yellow, a rash appears in the form of cadaveric spots.

This process is easy to explain. The fact is that with the approaching death of brain cells, neurons gradually die off. The turn comes to those departments that are responsible for thermoregulation in the body.

In case of high temperature, the skin is treated with a damp towel. The doctor also prescribes medicines that are effective in relieving fever.

These drugs will not only reduce body temperature, but also stop pain.

If the patient, due to the lack of a swallowing reflex, cannot take medication, then it is better for relatives to purchase them in the form of rectal suppositories or in injectable form. So the active ingredient is absorbed into the blood much faster.

Blurred consciousness and memory problems

There is a violation of reason due to the pathological work of some parts of the brain and other vital organs. Due to hypoxia, lack of nutrients, refusal of food and water, a person imagines and imagines another reality.

In this state, the dying person can say something, mutter something, be lost in space and time. This causes fear among relatives. However, shouting, disturbing him should not be. Failure in the functions of the brain gradually leads to their extinction, which causes clouding of the mind.

Confusion can be reduced by bending over the patient and saying the name in a low voice. If he does not come to his senses for a long time, then the doctor usually prescribes mild sedatives. Relatives of a dying person should prepare for the fact that when they are in a delirium, awareness of the approach of death may not happen.

Often there are periods of "enlightenment". Relatives understand that this is not an improvement in the condition, but a sign of approaching death.

If the patient is unconscious all the time, then the only thing that relatives can do is whisper words of farewell to him. He will definitely hear them. Such withdrawal in an unconscious state or in a dream is considered the most painless death.

Brain reactions: hallucinations

When dying, global changes occur in the brain regions. First of all, its cells begin to gradually die off due to oxygen starvation - hypoxia. Often in the process of their death, a person experiences hallucinations - auditory, tactile, visual.

An interesting study was conducted by Californian scientists. The results were published in 1961. Surveillance was carried out for 35,500 dying.

Most often, people's visions were associated with religious concepts and represented heaven and paradise. Others saw beautiful landscapes, rare fauna and flora. Still others talked to dead relatives and asked them to open the gates of paradise.

The finding of the study was that the nature of the hallucinations was not related to:

with the form of the disease;
age;
religious preferences;
individual characteristics;
education;
intelligence level.

Observations have shown that the death of a person goes through 3 stages:

resistance- awareness of danger, fear, desire to fight for life;
memories- fear disappears, pictures from the past flash in the subconscious;
transcendence- that which is beyond the mind and senses is sometimes referred to as cosmic consciousness.

Venous spots

Venous, or cadaveric spots - areas of the body that are saturated with blood. Occur before the death of a person, when dying and within a few hours after death. Outwardly, the areas resemble bruises - only extensive in area.

At first they have a grayish-yellowish tint, then they turn blue with a dark purple tint. After death (after 2-4 hours), the skin stops turning blue. The color turns gray again.

Venous spots form due to blockage of blood circulation. This causes the blood circulating in the circulatory system to slow down and sink down due to gravity. For this reason, the venous region of the bloodstream overflows. Blood shines through the skin, as a result, it becomes clear that its areas have turned blue.

Edema

Appear on the lower and upper limbs. Usually accompanied by the formation of venous spots. Occur due to a global violation or cessation of kidney function. If a person has cancer, then the urinary system cannot cope with toxins. Fluid accumulates in the feet and hands. This is a sign that a person is dying.

wheezing

The death rattle resembles crackling, murmuring, blowing air out of the lungs through a straw to the bottom of a mug filled with water. The symptom is intermittent, a bit like hiccups. On average, 16 hours pass from the onset of this phenomenon to the onset of death. Some patients die within 6 hours.

Wheezing is a sign of swallowing dysfunction. The tongue stops pushing saliva, and it flows down the respiratory tract, entering the lungs. A death rattle is an attempt by the lungs to breathe through saliva. It is worth noting that the dying at this moment does not hurt.

To stop wheezing, the doctor will prescribe drugs that reduce the production of saliva.

Predagony

Predagonia is a protective reaction of the vital systems of the body. Represents:

malfunctions of the nervous system;
confusion, slow reaction;
drop in blood pressure;
tachycardia followed by bradycardia;
deep and frequent breathing, alternating with rare and superficial;
increased heart rate;
the acquisition of skin of various shades - at first she turned pale, turned yellow, then turned blue;
the appearance of convulsions, convulsions.

This condition often proceeds slowly from several hours to one day.

death agony

Start with short breaths or one deep. Further, the rate of breathing increases. The lungs do not have time to ventilate. Gradually, breathing comes to naught. At the same time, a complete blockage of the nervous system occurs. At this stage, the pulse is present only on the carotid arteries. The person is in an unconscious state.

In agony, the dying person rapidly loses weight. This phenomenon ends with cardiac arrest and the onset of clinical death. The period of agony lasts from 3 minutes to half an hour.

How Long to Live: Watching the Dying

Predicting the exact time of death is almost impossible.

Signs indicating that a person has only a few minutes left before the end of his life:

Change in lifestyle, daily routine, behavior. These are early signs. Occur several months before death.
Perceptual disturbance. Occurs 3-4 weeks before death.
3-4 weeks before death, people eat poorly, they lose their appetite, they cannot swallow (a few days before they die).
Brain dysfunction. Happens in 10 days.
A person sleeps more and stays awake less. When death is near, he is in a dream for days. Such people do not live long. They have a few days.
In most cases, 60-72 hours before death, a person is delirious, his mind is confused, he does not reflect reality. Can talk to dead people.

Symptoms that indicate the process of dying a person.

Shortly before death, black vomiting is noted. In the last hours of life, the patient may urinate or empty the intestines. If the biological fluid turned black, this indicates bleeding and is often observed in cancer patients.
The cornea becomes cloudy.
The lower jaw droops, the mouth is open.
The pulse is too slow or not palpable.
The pressure becomes minimal.
The temperatures jump.
There is noisy breathing, wheezing.
At the time of death, the pectoral muscles contract. Therefore, it may seem to relatives that the person continues to breathe.
Convulsions, convulsions, foaming at the mouth.
The extremities become cold, the legs and arms swell, the skin becomes covered with cadaveric spots.

Symptoms of clinical and biological death

Death occurs with an irreversible disruption of the vital systems of the body, followed by a stoppage of the functioning of individual organs and tissues.

Most often, people die due to illness, injuries incompatible with life, drug addicts from an overdose of potent substances, alcoholics from toxic poisoning of the body. People rarely die of old age. Those who die from severe injuries, accidents experience a quick death and do not feel the painful symptoms that sick people experience.

After the death of a person, an autopsy is necessarily carried out. This solves the question of how to find out the cause of death.

After the agony comes clinical death. The period how long the body lives after its onset is 4-6 minutes (until the cells of the cerebral cortex die), during which time it is possible to help a person.

The main symptoms of clinical death.

There are no signs of life.
convulsions. There is involuntary urination, ejaculation, defecation due to severe muscle spasm.
Agony breathing. 15 seconds after death, the chest is still moving. The so-called agonal breathing continues. The deceased breathes rapidly and shallowly, sometimes wheezing, foaming at the mouth.
No pulse.
No pupillary reaction to light. It is the main sign of the onset of clinical death.

If resuscitation measures are not taken within 4-6 minutes, a person experiences biological death, in which it is believed that the body has died.

It is characterized by symptoms:

How to help

It is believed that hiding information about the allotted time should not be. Perhaps the patient wants to see someone or visit old friends, colleagues.
If it is difficult for a dying person to come to terms with the inevitability of the end, and he believes that he will recover, there is no need to convince him. It is important to support and encourage him, not to start a conversation about last wishes and parting words.
If relatives cannot cope with emotions, then it is better to connect a psychotherapist, a psychologist. A difficult test for a dying person is a manifestation of cowardice and grief of loved ones.
Helping the dying is to reduce the physical and moral suffering of the patient.
It is important to pre-purchase the necessary medications to alleviate the condition, supportive means. First of all, it concerns painkillers for cancer patients. Often getting a prescription for narcotic substances for a patient is not an easy task.
The involvement of palliative services is recommended to smooth out the symptoms of diseases.
Perhaps the dying person will want to talk to the priest from the church so that he forgives sins.
If a person who is dying wants to discuss death, it is imperative to keep the conversation going. The realization of the approach of one's death is a heavy feeling. It is not necessary to distract the patient, otherwise he will withdraw into himself, plunge into loneliness and fears.
If the patient insists on limiting contacts, you do not need to refuse him.
If the dying person is ready and wants, you can discuss the funeral with him or draw up a will. It is advisable to offer to write a letter to the one with whom he would like to say goodbye. Let him indicate parting words or advice in the news.
The fulfillment of a cherished desire is recommended. The dying are asked to give medicines, clothes, books, records and other things to needy or loved ones.
It is important not to forget to give more time to a person who is dying. Do not pay attention to the clouding of the mind, that he talks, sometimes drives away loved ones. Perhaps in the latter case, he wants to be alone with himself or does not want to show his torment and pain.
You don’t need to tell the dying that you will grieve, miss, you can’t imagine life without him. But if you plan to plant a tree in his memory, you can tell the person about it.

What do they say in this situation?

When communicating with a dying person, you do not need to take the lead in the conversation. It is better to ask for advice, parting words. Feel free to ask, thank, remember the best moments, how good it was, talk about love, that this is not the end, and everyone will meet in a better world. Be sure to say that he is forgiven for everything.

Tactile contact is essential. The patient must feel that he is not alone at the approach of death.

Condolences are expressed to the relatives of the deceased, while it is advisable to avoid pathos phrases. It is better to say sincerely and simply how hard the loss is, to name the best qualities of a person. It is recommended to indicate your participation, offer assistance in organizing the funeral, moral support.

How to Prepare for Death

It is impossible to be prepared for the loss of a loved one. However, some preparations will help ease the difficult period.

Funeral planning. It is advisable to think in which church to hold the funeral, in which cemetery to carry out burial or where to cremate, where to invite people to the wake.
If a person is a believer, it is recommended to talk with the priest, invite him to the dying, learn about actions after the death of a loved one.
The dying person does not need to communicate his assumptions about the funeral, if he does not ask about it. Otherwise, it may look like a desire to hasten the end of life.
Be prepared for a difficult emotional period, do not suppress feelings, give yourself the right to grieve. Take sedatives, visit a psychotherapist.

Do not blame anyone for the death of a loved one, accept and reconcile. It is important to remember that prolonged sorrow, grief and self-torment will not give the soul peace and will draw it back to the earth.

A decrease in a person's temperature under unfavorable circumstances can cause death from hypothermia. Already starting from a body temperature of 32-30 ° C, the activity of vital organs stops, resulting in death.

At first, the cold air around seems like a harmless situation. You shiver, which is a reflex reaction to cold: the body forces you to move in order to release energy. Red cheeks, ears and bare hands. So far, all this is really not scary, because. you are fully conscious and ideally will soon go to a room where you can easily warm up with warm drinks and a hot bath. However, if you spend a long time in the cold, under certain conditions, you can lose body temperature and die from hypothermia.

When the temperature of the human body drops to +36 degrees, the muscles of the neck and shoulders begin to shrink - this is the so-called preconvulsive muscle tone. At this time, skin receptors send signals to the hypothalamus, to the thermoregulation center, and it instructs the capillaries under the skin to narrow. As a result, you feel your legs and arms ache from the cold. If nothing is done and stay in the cold for 45-60 minutes, the temperature can drop to +35 degrees. You will begin to shake violently as the body makes a desperate attempt to expel heat through movement.

But now an hour has passed. Brain enzymes are no longer so active, the metabolic rate drops by 3-5% with a decrease in body temperature per degree. When it reaches +34 degrees, a person gradually begins to enter a state of oblivion, lose memory and reason. At this moment, he is no longer able to help himself, and therefore simply falls into a snowdrift.

Meanwhile, due to the immobility of the body, the heat leaves more and more intensively. At +32 degrees, a person enters a state of stupor: confusion, apathetic state. That is why death from frostbite can be outwardly described as follows: when a person freezes, he seems to fall asleep.

Further, the body temperature drops even lower. At values less than +30 degrees, electrical impulses in the body become arrhythmic, the heart pumps only two-thirds of the usual blood volume. In this case, there is a lack of oxygen, which can cause hallucinations.

On average, death from hypothermia occurs when a person's body temperature drops to +29 degrees and below.

Some people act strangely before they die. For example, they begin to tear off their clothes. This is explained by the fact that when hypothermia, the body turns on a thermal reaction called vasoconstriction: narrowing of the skin vessels occurs, for which a huge amount of glucose is spent, therefore, soon, due to a lack of energy, the muscles that constrict the vessels relax, which causes warm blood from the internal organs to rush to the periphery - in humans a false sensation of heat begins. And since the victim of the cold already knows little, she begins to undress to cool off.

Another inadequate reaction of a dying person to cold is burrowing. Many warm-blooded animals dig burrows before hibernation and hide in foliage. In the last minutes of life, a person, as it were, returns to his roots, becoming like an animal. This condition is called terminal digging. It usually occurs a few minutes before complete loss of consciousness and death.

Because of this behavior, those who are frozen to death are often confused with victims of sexual violence. The body lies naked, buried in leaves or earth, and clothes are lying nearby. What else can an uninitiated person think? However, criminologists know that these signs are not always evidence of a violent death.

Can death from cold occur at positive temperatures?

A modern unhardened person without clothes begins to freeze even at an air temperature below + 25 ° C. However, for example, at 23°C, he may not feel discomfort due to compensatory reactions of the body that allow him to keep warm. So, even at temperatures from 0 to +5 ° C in calm weather, an adult with a fatty layer in light clothing can maintain sufficient body temperature so as not to get sick if he does not stay outside for too long.

However, doctors ascertain death from hypothermia not only in the northern countries, but also in the tropics, where the temperature rarely drops below 10 ° C. This happens with high humidity and strong winds.
There is no consensus among scientists about at what specific air temperature a person dies from hypothermia and how long it takes to freeze to death. It's all about the original state of the body, the presence or absence of injuries, mobility, hardening. It also depends on other weather conditions - the presence of wind, sun, high humidity.

Most often, hypothermia becomes irreversible when the temperature of the human body drops below 25-29 ° C. Nevertheless, a record was set: an adult survived with a body temperature of 16 ° C. Children are more tenacious: a two-year-old girl ran out of the apartment at an air temperature of -40°C and spent the night like that, after which she was found and pumped out, despite the fact that her body temperature had already dropped to 14°C.

Typical stories of freezing death

Even though each story is unique, they have something in common..

Death from hypothermia in water

It is much easier to die in ice water than in cold air. The thing is that the heat capacity of water is 3-4 times higher than the heat capacity of air, and its thermal conductivity is 22-27 times greater. For this reason, water takes away heat from a person 25-30 times faster than air. Therefore, the features of death from hypothermia in water are that it occurs very quickly.

Alcohol in the cold

People in a state of alcoholic or drug intoxication are inadequate and prone to feats (for example, to swim in ice water). In addition, alcohol changes the feeling of cold - as a result, the victim freezes without knowing it. Usually, if a person is cold while sober, they are found in the fetal position. Drunk people spread their arms and legs, lie sprawled, as if they are hot.

Dead in the mountains

Climbers often get caught in the snow. They seem to have the right clothes, and thermoses, and food to go, and equipment. However, the mountains are preparing unforeseen situations. If a person fell under a layer of snow, he can lie alive for almost a day. However, without assistance, sooner or later it will freeze to death.

stuck on the road

Another common situation is a frozen driver who was driving somewhere alone and got into a skid or rolled over in a car. For the first minutes, he does not understand that he is starting to freeze, because. busy with the problem of the machine. He even gets excited. But then the body temperature drops to the usual levels, and then begins to fall, until freezing and death.

What contributes to death from cold

As we have already said, it is not the low air temperature itself that is terrible, but additional factors that can contribute to the speedy onset of death. Among these factors, it is worth noting the following:

being outside for too long without proper clothing;
the state of alcoholic intoxication (alcohol does not allow the body to effectively deal with heat loss, and also leads to inadequate perception of cold);
immersion in cold water;
loss of consciousness in the cold;
injuries that prevent movement and warming;
low immunity;
hypothermia against the background of diseases, for example, dysfunction of the kidneys, heart, diabetes mellitus, etc.;
exhausted state of the body (from hypothermia, the homeless, the elderly weakened by the disease, small children, very tired people die more often);
dehydration (without enough fluid, the blood thickens in the cold, as a result of which the body is not able to retain heat);
getting into the cold in a tired state (if a person has not slept enough, his body's ability to effectively thermoregulate is reduced).

First aid to prevent death

At extremely low temperatures, the body seems to be conserved: internal processes slow down so much that it may seem dead, being alive. Therefore, climbers even have a proverb: you did not die from the cold until you warmed up and died. This means that death cannot be declared until the person has been warmed.

But, oddly enough, quite a few people who die of hypothermia actually die because they were warmed too quickly. On the one hand, frostbite and near-death state require emergency care. On the other hand, if you start heating too quickly, a person dies from the fact that all the narrowed vessels expand at the same time, as a result, the pressure drops sharply, and it, in turn, provokes a spasm of the heart muscle. If, under such circumstances, cardiac resuscitation is not performed, the person will die. Therefore, first aid to prevent death should, first of all, do no harm.

The main thing to do is to call an ambulance. After that, if possible, the freezing person should be taken to a warm place or covered with warm clothes. If the victim is conscious, you need to give him a warm liquid to drink. You can put a heating pad on. If there is no consciousness and the person is more like an icicle, independent actions of rubbing, dousing with hot water and other procedures that usually occur to a frightened "rescuer" are contraindicated. The maximum that can be done is to carry the body to heat or cover it.

Arriving at the scene, doctors will first assess the patient's condition, after which they will raise the temperature gradually. The clinics have equipment that allows you to connect a patient to a heart-lung machine, pump out blood and warm it round after round, degree by degree. However, for hospitals in small towns and for mobile teams, such devices are rare. Therefore, doctors use improvised means, including injecting special injections and keeping a defibrillator at the ready. As you can see, these are procedures that require special skills and equipment, so you cannot carry them out on your own.

Signs of death from cold

With the naked eye, as we have already said, it is difficult to determine whether a person is dead or alive. Here are the signs of death:

pale skin;
reduction and retraction of the scrotum in men;
bright red head of the penis;
cadaveric spots of pink color due to supersaturation of blood with oxygen;
areas of frostbite on the body;
frost on the eyelashes, ice in the openings of the mouth and nose;
clothing frozen to the body.

But almost all of these signs can be present in the living, and cadaveric spots appear over time, so the corpse may look like a living one. That is why the death must be ascertained by doctors who tried to resuscitate the patient.

Pathologists establish the picture of death more accurately by seeing, for example, Vishnevsky's spots (hemorrhages in the gastric mucosa), a heart full of blood with fibrin clots, a lighter color of blood in the left half of the heart and lungs, and also fixing a decrease in the level of glycogen in the blood, liver and myocardium.

Cold not only kills, but also helps to prolong life. The slowing down of all processes in the body with artificial introduction to a frozen state makes it possible to postpone death. During the time that a person is “frozen”, doctors have time to prepare him, for example, for an operation. Scientists also use this feature of the body for hopelessly ill patients who agree to a very deep freeze for an indefinite time - until the moment when scientists learn how to unfreeze and treat them for an ailment against which today's medicine is powerless.

Since the appearance of man, he has always been tormented by questions of the mystery of birth and death. It is impossible to live forever, and, probably, scientists will not soon invent the elixir of immortality. Everyone is concerned about the question of what a person feels when he dies. What is happening at this moment? These questions have always worried people, and so far scientists have not found an answer to them.

Interpretation of death

Death is a natural process of ending our existence. Without it, it is impossible to imagine the evolution of life on earth. What happens when a person dies? Such a question has interested and will interest humanity as long as it exists.

Passing away from life proves to some extent that the fittest and the fittest survive. Without it, biological progress would be impossible, and man, perhaps, would never have appeared.

Despite the fact that this natural process has always interested people, it is hard and difficult to talk about death. First of all, because there is a psychological problem. Talking about it, we seem to be mentally approaching the end of our lives, so we don’t feel like talking about death in any context.

On the other hand, it is difficult to talk about death, because we, the living, did not experience it, therefore we cannot say what a person feels when he dies.

Some compare death to ordinary falling asleep, while others argue that this is a kind of forgetfulness, when a person completely forgets about everything. But neither one nor the other, of course, are right. These analogies cannot be called adequate. It can only be argued that death is the disappearance of our consciousness.

Many continue to believe that after his death, a person simply passes into another world, where he exists not at the level of the physical body, but at the level of the soul.

It's safe to say that research on death will continue forever, but it will never provide a definitive answer about how people feel at this moment. It is simply impossible, no one has yet returned from the other world to tell us how and what is happening there.

What does a person feel when they die?

Physical sensations, probably, at this moment depend on what led to death. Therefore, they may or may not be painful, and some believe that they are quite pleasant.

Everyone has their own inner feelings in the face of death. Most people have some kind of fear sitting inside, they seem to resist and do not want to accept it, clinging to life with all their might.

Scientific data show that after the heart muscle stops, the brain lives for a few more seconds, the person no longer feels anything, but is still conscious. Some believe that it is at this time that the summing up of life results takes place.

Unfortunately, no one can answer the question of how a person dies, what happens when this happens. All these feelings, most likely, are strictly individual.

Biological classification of death

Since the very concept of death is a biological term, the classification must be approached from this point of view. Based on this, the following categories of death can be distinguished:

Natural.
Unnatural.

Physiological death can be attributed to natural, which can occur due to:

Body aging.
Fetal underdevelopment. Therefore, he dies almost immediately after birth or even in the womb.

Unnatural death is divided into the following types:

Death from disease (infections, cardiovascular disease).
Sudden.
Sudden.
Death from external factors (mechanical damage, respiratory failure, from exposure to electric current or low temperatures, medical intervention).

This is how you can roughly characterize death from a biological point of view.

Socio-legal classification

If we talk about death in this perspective, then it can be:

Violent (murder, suicide).
Non-violent (epidemics, industrial accidents, occupational diseases).

Violent death is always associated with external influences, while non-violent death is due to senile flabbiness, diseases or physical disabilities.

In any type of death, injuries or diseases trigger pathological processes, which are the direct cause of death.

Even if the cause of death is known, it is still impossible to say what a person sees when he dies. This question will remain unanswered.

Signs of death

It is possible to single out the initial and reliable signs that indicate that a person has died. The first group includes:

The body is without movement.
Pale skin.
Consciousness is absent.
Breathing stopped, no pulse.
No response to external stimuli.
The pupils do not react to light.
The body becomes cold.

Signs that speak of 100% death:

The corpse is stiff and cold, cadaveric spots begin to appear.
Late cadaveric manifestations: decomposition, mummification.

The first signs can be confused with a loss of consciousness to an ignorant person, therefore only a doctor should state death.

Stages of death

Departure from life can take different periods of time. This can last minutes, and in some cases hours or days. Dying is a dynamic process, in which death does not occur immediately, but gradually, if you do not mean instant death.

The following stages of death can be distinguished:

preagonal state. The processes of blood circulation and respiration are disturbed, this leads to the fact that the tissues begin to lack oxygen. This state can last for several hours or several days.
Terminal pause. Breathing stops, the work of the heart muscle is disturbed, the activity of the brain stops. This period lasts only a few minutes.
Agony. The body abruptly begins the struggle for survival. At this time, there are short pauses in breathing, a weakening of cardiac activity, as a result, all organ systems cannot carry out their work normally. The appearance of a person changes: the eyes sink, the nose becomes sharp, the lower jaw begins to sag.
clinical death. Stops breathing and blood circulation. During this period, a person can still be revived if no more than 5-6 minutes have passed. It is after coming back to life at this stage that many people talk about what happens when a person dies.
biological death. The body finally ceases to exist.

After death, many organs remain viable for several hours. This is very important, and it is during this period that they can be used for transplantation to another person.

clinical death

It can be called a transitional stage between the final death of the organism and life. The heart stops its work, breathing stops, all signs of vital activity of the body disappear.

Within 5-6 minutes, irreversible processes do not yet have time to start in the brain, so at this time there is every chance to bring a person back to life. Adequate resuscitation actions will force the heart to beat again, the organs to function.

Signs of clinical death

If you carefully observe a person, then it is quite easy to determine the onset of clinical death. She has the following symptoms:

The pulse is absent.
Breathing stops.
The heart stops working.
Strongly dilated pupils.
There are no reflexes.
The person is unconscious.
The skin is pale.
The body is in an unnatural position.

To determine the onset of this moment, it is necessary to feel the pulse and look at the pupils. Clinical death differs from biological death in that the pupils retain the ability to respond to light.

The pulse can be felt on the carotid artery. This is usually done at the same time as the pupils are checked to speed up the diagnosis of clinical death.

If a person is not helped during this period, then biological death will occur, and then it will be impossible to bring him back to life.

How to recognize approaching death

Many philosophers and doctors compare the process of birth and death with each other. They are always individual. It is impossible to predict exactly when a person will leave this world and how this will happen. However, most dying people experience similar symptoms as death approaches. How a person dies may not even be affected by the reasons that provoked the beginning of this process.

Before death, certain psychological and physical changes occur in the body. Among the most striking and frequently encountered are the following:

There is less and less energy left, often drowsiness and weakness throughout the body.
The frequency and depth of breathing changes. Periods of stopping are replaced by frequent and deep breaths.
There are changes in the senses, a person can hear or see something that is not heard by others.
Appetite becomes weak or almost disappears.
Changes in the organ systems lead to dark urine and hard-to-pass stools.
There are temperature fluctuations. High can be abruptly replaced by low.
A person completely loses interest in the outside world.

When a person is seriously ill, there may be other symptoms before death.

Feelings of a person at the time of drowning

If you ask a question about how a person feels when he dies, then the answer may depend on the cause and circumstances of death. Everyone has it in their own way, but in any case, at this moment, there is an acute oxygen deficiency in the brain.

After the movement of blood is stopped, regardless of the method, after about 10 seconds the person loses consciousness, and a little later the death of the body occurs.

If drowning becomes the cause of death, then at the moment when a person is under water, he begins to panic. Since it is impossible to do without breathing, after a while the drowning person has to take a breath, but instead of air, water enters the lungs.

As the lungs fill with water, a burning sensation and fullness appears in the chest. Gradually, after a few minutes, calmness appears, which indicates that the consciousness will soon leave the person, and this will lead to death.

The life expectancy of a person in water will also depend on its temperature. The colder it is, the faster hypothermia sets in. Even if a person is afloat, and not under water, the chances of survival are decreasing by the minute.

An already lifeless body can still be taken out of the water and brought back to life if not much time has passed. The first step is to free the airways from water, and then fully carry out resuscitation measures.

Feelings during a heart attack

In some cases, it happens that a person falls abruptly and dies. Most often, death from a heart attack does not occur suddenly, but the development of the disease occurs gradually. A myocardial infarction does not strike a person immediately, for some time people may feel some discomfort in the chest, but try not to pay attention to it. This is the big mistake that ends in death.

If you are prone to heart attacks, then you should not expect everything to go away on its own. Such hope can cost you your life. After cardiac arrest, only a few seconds will pass before the person loses consciousness. A few more minutes, and death is already taking a loved one from us.

If the patient is in the hospital, then he has a chance to get out if the doctors detect cardiac arrest in time and carry out resuscitation.

body temperature and death

Many are interested in the question of at what temperature a person dies. Most people remember from biology lessons from school that for a person, a body temperature above 42 degrees is considered fatal.

Some scientists attribute death at high temperatures to the properties of water, the molecules of which change their structure. But these are only guesses and assumptions that science has yet to deal with.

If we consider the question of at what temperature a person dies, when hypothermia of the body begins, then we can say that even when the body cools down to 30 degrees, a person loses consciousness. If no action is taken at this moment, death will occur.

Many such cases occur with people intoxicated with alcohol, who fall asleep in the winter right on the street and no longer wake up.

Emotional changes before death

Usually, before death, a person becomes completely indifferent to everything that happens around. He ceases to navigate in time and dates, becomes silent, but some, on the contrary, begin to constantly talk about the upcoming road.

A close dying person may begin to tell you that he spoke or saw dead relatives. Another extreme manifestation at this time is the state of psychosis. It is always difficult for loved ones to endure all this, so you can consult a doctor and consult about taking medications to alleviate the condition of the dying.

If a person falls into a state of stupor or often sleeps for a long time, do not try to stir him up, wake him up, just be there, hold your hand, talk. Many even in a coma can hear everything perfectly.

Death is always hard, each of us will cross this line between life and non-existence in due time. When this will happen and under what circumstances, what you will feel at the same time, unfortunately, is impossible to predict. Everyone has a purely individual feeling.

Death is different, sometimes it is sudden in the midst of complete well-being, such a death is usually sudden, bright and tragic, but there is another death, this is death that quietly creeps up and, as it were, humbly waits at the head of its minute, this is the death of seriously decrepit old men and women, such a death is of little interest and far less has been written about her than about her first friend. Sooner or later, we all will have to face death, because "contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis", sometimes death has to be met not in the intensive care unit burning around the clock with all the lights, but at home, in the family circle, of course, this is in any case a very difficult event , but you should not completely lose your head, reveling in your experiences, but on the contrary, you should make the last days and hours of a loved one as comfortable as possible, how to recognize the signs that the end is already near and help the dying person on these last difficult stages of his journey .

No one can predict when death will come, but people on duty, often encounter people who are seeing off their last days in this world, they are well aware of the symptoms of approaching death, the symptoms of the fact that there are only a few days and hours of a human being.

Loss of appetite
In a gradually fading person, energy needs decrease more and more over time, the person begins to refuse food and drink, or take only small amounts of neutral simple food (for example, porridge). Coarse food is usually given up first. Even once-favorite dishes do not deliver former pleasure. Just before death, some people are simply unable to swallow food.

What to do: do not try to force-feed a person, listen to the wishes of the dying person, even if you are deeply upset by his refusal to eat. Periodically offer the dying person pieces of ice, popsicles, sips of water. Wipe the lips and skin around the mouth with a soft cloth moistened with warm water, treat the lips with hygienic lipstick so that the lips do not dry out, but remain moist and supple.

Increased fatigue and drowsiness
A dying person can spend most of the day in a dream, since the metabolism fades away, and the reduced need for water and food contributes to dehydration, the dying person wakes up more difficultly, weakness reaches such an extent that the person perceives everything around him completely passively.

What to do: let the dying person sleep, do not force him to stay awake, do not disturb him, everything you say, he can hear, suggest that hearing is preserved even if the person is unconscious, in a coma or other forms of impaired consciousness.

Severe physical exhaustion
Decreasing metabolism produces less and less energy, it remains so small that it becomes very difficult for a dying person not only to turn in bed, but even to turn his head, even a sip of liquid through a straw can cause great difficulties for the patient.

What to do: Try to maintain a comfortable position for the patient and help him if necessary.

Confusion or disorientation
The functional insufficiency of many organs is growing, not bypassing the brain, consciousness begins to change, usually, with one speed or another, its oppression occurs, the dying person may no longer be aware of where he or she is, who surrounds him, may speak or respond less readily, can communicate with people who are not or cannot be in the room, can talk nonsense, confuse time, day, year, can lie motionless on the bed, or can become restless and pull the bed linen.

What to do: stay calm yourself and try to calm the dying person, speak softly to the person and let him know who is at the moment by his bed or when you approach him.

Difficulty breathing, shortness of breath
Respiratory movements become erratic, jerky, a person may experience difficulty in breathing, so-called pathological types of respiration can be observed, for example, Cheyne-Stokes respiration - a period of increasing loud respiratory movements alternating with decreasing in depth, after which there is a pause (apnea) lasting from five seconds to minutes, followed by another period of deep, loud rising breathing movements. Sometimes excess fluid in the airways creates loud bubbling sounds with breathing, sometimes referred to as the "death rattle".

What to do: prolonged apnea (pause between breaths) or loud gurgling can be alarming, however, the dying person may not even be aware of this kind of change, focus on ensuring overall comfort, a change in position, for example, putting it under the back and head can help another pillow, you can give an elevated position or slightly turn his head to the side, moisten his lips with a damp cloth and treat his lips with hygienic lipstick. If a large amount of sputum is separated, try to facilitate its discharge through the mouth in a natural way, because artificial suction can only increase its separation, a humidifier in the room can help, in some cases oxygen is prescribed, in any case, stay calm, try to calm the dying .

Social exclusion
While irreversible changes gradually build up in the body, the dying person gradually begins to lose interest in the people around him, the dying person may stop communicating completely, mutter nonsense, stop answering questions, or simply turn away.
A few days before, before completely plunging into oblivion, a dying person can surprise relatives with an unusual burst of mental activity, begin to recognize those present again, communicate with them, and respond to speech addressed to him, this period can last less than an hour, and sometimes even a day. .

What to do: in any case, remember that all this is a natural manifestation of the dying process and is by no means a reflection of your relationship, maintain physical contact with the dying person, touch, continue to communicate with him if appropriate, and try not to wait for any response from him instead, cherish the episodes of sudden awareness when they happen, as they are almost always fleeting.

Changed urination pattern
The dying person has a reduced need for food and fluid intake, a decrease in blood pressure is part of the process of dying (which, due to the latter, does not need to be corrected to a normal level, like some other symptoms), urine becomes small, it becomes concentrated - rich brownish, reddish colors, or colors of tea.
Control over the natural functions can later be completely lost in the process of dying.

What to do: A urinary catheter may be placed to control and facilitate the passage of urine, as instructed by medical staff, although this is usually not necessary in the final hours. The onset of kidney failure leads to the accumulation of "toxins" in the circulating blood and contributes to a peaceful coma before death. And, simply, lay a fresh film.

Swelling of the hands and feet
Progressive renal failure leads to the accumulation of fluid in the body, it usually accumulates in tissues distant from the heart, that is, usually in the fatty tissue of the hands and, especially, the feet, which gives them a somewhat puffy, swollen appearance.

What to do: usually this does not require special measures (prescription of diuretics) because they are part of the process of dying, and not its cause.

Coldness of the fingertips and toes
In the hours to minutes before death, the peripheral blood vessels constrict in an attempt to maintain circulation to the vital organs of the heart and brain as blood pressure progressively decreases. With spasm of peripheral vessels, the limbs (fingers of the hands and feet, as well as the hands and feet themselves) become noticeably colder, the nail beds become pale or bluish.

What to do: At this stage, the dying person may already be in a state of unconsciousness, otherwise, a warm blanket can help maintain comfort, the person may complain about the weight of the blanket covering their legs, so free them as much as possible.

Spots on the skin
On the skin, which was previously evenly pale, a distinctly distinguishable variegation and spots of a purple, reddish, or bluish tint appear - one of the final signs of imminent death - the result of circulatory disorders in the microcirculatory bed (venules, arterioles, capillaries), often at first such spotting is detected on the feet.

What to do: No special action is required.

The described symptoms are the most common signs of an approaching natural death, they can vary in the order of occurrence and be observed in different combinations in different people, in the case when the patient is in the intensive care unit, under artificial ventilation, and a multicomponent intensive drug therapy process. dying can be completely different, but here the process of natural death is described in general terms.

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Sudden death due to cardiac causes: from acute coronary insufficiency and others

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is one of the most severe cardiac pathologies that usually develops in the presence of witnesses, occurs instantly or in a short period of time and has as the main cause of the coronary arteries.

The suddenness factor plays a decisive role in making such a diagnosis. As a rule, in the absence of signs of an impending threat to life, instant death occurs within a few minutes. A slower development of the pathology is also possible, when arrhythmia, heart pain and other complaints appear, and the patient dies in the first six hours from the moment they occur.

The greatest risk of sudden coronary death can be traced in people aged 45-70 who have some form of disturbance in the vessels, heart muscle, and its rhythm. Among young patients, there are 4 times more men, in old age, the male sex is susceptible to pathology 7 times more often. In the seventh decade of life, gender differences are smoothed out, and the ratio of men and women with this pathology becomes 2:1.

Most patients with sudden cardiac arrest finds themselves at home, a fifth of cases occur on the street or in public transport. Both there and there are witnesses to the attack, who can quickly call an ambulance, and then the likelihood of a positive outcome will be much higher.

Saving a life can depend on the actions of others, so you can’t just walk past a person who suddenly fell on the street or passed out on a bus. It is necessary to at least try to conduct a basic one - an indirect heart massage and artificial respiration, after calling the doctors for help. Cases of indifference are not uncommon, unfortunately, therefore, the percentage of unfavorable outcomes due to late resuscitation takes place.

Causes of sudden cardiac death

main cause of SCD is atherosclerosis

The causes that can cause acute coronary death are very numerous, but they are always associated with changes in the heart and its vessels. The lion's share of sudden deaths is caused when fatty materials form in the coronary arteries that impede blood flow. The patient may not be aware of their presence, they may not present complaints as such, then they say that a completely healthy person suddenly died of a heart attack.

Another cause of cardiac arrest can be an acutely developed one, in which proper hemodynamics is impossible, the organs suffer from hypoxia, and the heart itself cannot withstand the load and.

The causes of sudden cardiac death are:

Cardiac ischemia;
Congenital anomalies of the coronary arteries;
arteries with endocarditis, implanted artificial valves;
Spasm of the arteries of the heart, both against the background of atherosclerosis, and without it;
with hypertension, vice,;
Metabolic diseases (amyloidosis, hemochromatosis);
Congenital and acquired;
Injuries and tumors of the heart;
Physical overload;
Arrhythmias.

Risk factors are identified when the probability of acute coronary death becomes higher. The main such factors include ventricular tachycardia, an earlier episode of cardiac arrest, cases of loss of consciousness, transferred, a decrease in the left ventricle to 40% or less.

Secondary, but also significant, conditions under which the risk of sudden death is increased are comorbidities, in particular, diabetes, obesity, myocardial hypertrophy, tachycardia of more than 90 beats per minute. Smokers are also at risk, those who neglect motor activity and, conversely, athletes. With excessive physical exertion, hypertrophy of the heart muscle occurs, a tendency to rhythm and conduction disturbances appears, therefore death from a heart attack is possible in physically healthy athletes during training, matches, and competitions.

diagram: distribution of causes of SCD at a young age

For closer observation and targeted examination groups of persons with a high risk of SCD were identified. Among them:

Patients undergoing resuscitation for cardiac arrest or;
Patients with chronic insufficiency and ischemia of the heart;
Persons with electrical ;
Those diagnosed with significant cardiac hypertrophy.

Depending on how quickly death occurred, instant cardiac death and fast death are distinguished. In the first case, it occurs in a matter of seconds and minutes, in the second - within the next six hours from the onset of the attack.

Signs of sudden cardiac death

In a quarter of all cases of sudden death of adults, there were no previous symptoms, it occurred without obvious reasons. Other Patients noted one to two weeks before the attack, deterioration in health in the form of:

More frequent pain attacks in the region of the heart;
Rising ;
A noticeable decrease in efficiency, feelings of fatigue and fatigue;
More frequent episodes of arrhythmias and interruptions in the activity of the heart.

Before cardiovascular death, pain in the region of the heart sharply increases, many patients have time to complain about it and experience strong fear, as happens with myocardial infarction. Psychomotor agitation is possible, the patient grabs the region of the heart, breathes noisily and often, catches air with his mouth, sweating and reddening of the face are possible.

Nine out of ten cases of sudden coronary death occur outside the home, often against the background of a strong emotional experience, physical overload, but it happens that the patient dies from acute coronary pathology in his sleep.

With ventricular fibrillation and cardiac arrest against the background of an attack, severe weakness appears, dizziness begins, the patient loses consciousness and falls, breathing becomes noisy, convulsions are possible due to deep hypoxia of the brain tissue.

On examination, pallor of the skin is noted, the pupils dilate and stop responding to light, it is impossible to listen to heart sounds due to their absence, and the pulse on large vessels is also not determined. In a matter of minutes, clinical death occurs with all the signs characteristic of it. Since the heart does not contract, the blood supply to all internal organs is disrupted, therefore, within a few minutes after loss of consciousness and asystole, breathing stops.

The brain is most sensitive to lack of oxygen, and if the heart does not work, then 3-5 minutes are enough for irreversible changes to begin in its cells. This circumstance requires the immediate start of resuscitation, and the sooner chest compressions are provided, the higher the chances of survival and recovery.

Sudden death due to concomitant atherosclerosis of the arteries, then it is more often diagnosed in the elderly.

Among young such attacks can occur against the background of a spasm of unchanged vessels, which is facilitated by the use of certain drugs (cocaine), hypothermia, excessive physical exertion. In such cases, the study will show no changes in the vessels of the heart, but myocardial hypertrophy may well be detected.

Signs of death from heart failure in acute coronary pathology will be pallor or cyanosis of the skin, a rapid increase in the liver and jugular veins, pulmonary edema is possible, which accompanies shortness of breath up to 40 respiratory movements per minute, severe anxiety and convulsions.

If the patient already suffered from chronic organ failure, but edema, cyanosis of the skin, an enlarged liver, and expanded borders of the heart during percussion can indicate the cardiac genesis of death. Often, when the ambulance team arrives, the patient's relatives themselves indicate the presence of a previous chronic illness, they can provide doctors' records and extracts from hospitals, then the issue of diagnosis is somewhat simplified.

Diagnosis of sudden death syndrome

Unfortunately, cases of post-mortem diagnosis of sudden death are not uncommon. Patients die suddenly, and doctors can only confirm the fact of a fatal outcome. The autopsy did not find any pronounced changes in the heart that could cause death. The unexpectedness of what happened and the absence of traumatic injuries speak in favor of the coronarogenic nature of the pathology.

After the arrival of the ambulance and before the start of resuscitation, the patient's condition is diagnosed, which by this time is already unconscious. Breathing is absent or too rare, convulsive, it is impossible to feel the pulse, heart sounds are not detected during auscultation, the pupils do not react to light.

The initial examination is carried out very quickly, usually a few minutes are enough to confirm the worst fears, after which the doctors immediately begin resuscitation.

An important instrumental method for diagnosing SCD is ECG. With ventricular fibrillation, erratic waves of contractions appear on the ECG, the heart rate is above two hundred per minute, soon these waves are replaced by a straight line, indicating cardiac arrest.

With ventricular flutter, the ECG record resembles a sinusoid, gradually giving way to erratic fibrillation waves and an isoline. Asystole characterizes cardiac arrest, so the cardiogram will only show a straight line.

With successful resuscitation at the prehospital stage, already in a hospital, the patient will have to undergo numerous laboratory examinations, starting with routine urine and blood tests and ending with a toxicological study for some drugs that can cause arrhythmia. 24-hour ECG monitoring, ultrasound examination of the heart, electrophysiological examination, and stress tests will definitely be carried out.

Treatment of sudden cardiac death

Since cardiac arrest and respiratory failure occur in sudden cardiac death syndrome, the first step is to restore the functioning of the life support organs. Emergency care should be started as early as possible and includes cardiopulmonary resuscitation and immediate transport of the patient to a hospital.

At the prehospital stage, the possibilities of resuscitation are limited, usually it is carried out by emergency specialists who find the patient in a variety of conditions - on the street, at home, at the workplace. It is good if at the time of the attack there is a person nearby who owns her techniques - artificial respiration and chest compressions.

Video: performing basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation

The ambulance team, after diagnosing clinical death, begins an indirect heart massage and artificial ventilation of the lungs with an Ambu bag, provides access to a vein into which medications can be injected. In some cases, intratracheal or intracardiac administration of drugs is practiced. It is advisable to inject drugs into the trachea during its intubation, and the intracardiac method is used most rarely - if it is impossible to use others.

In parallel with the main resuscitation, an ECG is taken to clarify the causes of death, the type of arrhythmia and the nature of the heart's activity at the moment. If ventricular fibrillation is detected, then the best method for stopping it will be, and if the necessary device is not at hand, then the specialist makes a blow to the precordial region and continues resuscitation.

defibrillation

If a cardiac arrest is detected, there is no pulse, there is a straight line on the cardiogram, then during general resuscitation, adrenaline and atropine are administered to the patient in any available way at intervals of 3-5 minutes, antiarrhythmic drugs, cardiac stimulation is established, after 15 minutes sodium bicarbonate is added intravenously.

After placing the patient in the hospital, the struggle for his life continues. It is necessary to stabilize the condition and begin treatment of the pathology that caused the attack. You may need a surgical operation, the indications for which are determined by doctors in the hospital based on the results of examinations.

Conservative treatment includes the introduction of drugs to maintain pressure, heart function, and normalize electrolyte disturbances. For this purpose, beta-blockers, cardiac glycosides, antiarrhythmic drugs, antihypertensives or cardiotonic drugs, infusion therapy are prescribed:

Lidocaine for ventricular fibrillation;
Bradycardia is stopped by atropine or izadrin;
Hypotension serves as a reason for intravenous administration of dopamine;
Fresh frozen plasma, heparin, aspirin are indicated for DIC;
Piracetam is administered to improve brain function;
With hypokalemia - potassium chloride, polarizing mixtures.

Treatment in the post-resuscitation period lasts about a week. At this time, electrolyte disturbances, DIC, neurological disorders are likely, so the patient is placed in the intensive care unit for observation.

Surgery may consist in radiofrequency ablation of the myocardium - with tachyarrhythmias, the efficiency reaches 90% or more. With a tendency to atrial fibrillation, a cardioverter-defibrillator is implanted. Diagnosed atherosclerosis of the arteries of the heart as a cause of sudden death requires carrying out; in case of heart valve defects, they are plastic.

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to provide resuscitation within the first few minutes, but if it was possible to bring the patient back to life, then the prognosis is relatively good. According to research data, the organs of persons who have suffered sudden cardiac death do not have significant and life-threatening changes, therefore, maintenance therapy in accordance with the underlying pathology allows you to live for a long time after coronary death.

Prevention of sudden coronary death is needed for people with chronic diseases of the cardiovascular system that can cause an attack, as well as for those who have already experienced it and have been successfully resuscitated.

A cardioverter-defibrillator may be implanted to prevent a heart attack, and is especially effective for serious arrhythmias. At the right moment, the device generates the impulse necessary for the heart and does not allow it to stop.

Require medical support. Beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, products containing omega-3 fatty acids are prescribed. Surgical prophylaxis consists of operations aimed at eliminating arrhythmias - ablation, endocardial resection, cryodestruction.

Non-specific measures for the prevention of cardiac death are the same as for any other cardiac or vascular pathology - a healthy lifestyle, physical activity, giving up bad habits, proper nutrition.