After 45 minutes, Ohio man’s heart starts beating again
The heart of a 37-year-old diesel mechanic stopped beating for 45 minutes – so long that doctors thought he was dead. He wasn’t.
The heart of a 37-year-old diesel mechanic stopped beating for 45 minutes – so long that doctors thought he was dead. “He was truly flatlined,” said Dr Jayne Testa, of Kettering Medical Center, in Kettering, Ohio. He had no electrical motion, no respiration, and no heart beat, and no blood pressure.”
But suddenly Troy Yahle’s heart began beating again.
“In the last 20 years, I’ve never seen anybody who we have pronounced dead … and then for him to come back, I’ve never seen it,” cardiologist Dr Raja Nazir said. “Actually, I’ve never heard of it.” Doctors are still not sure why Yahle’s heart stopped. It may have been a viral infection. Now he is in good health.
Cases like Yahle’s are rare, but they do happen. They cast a cloud over the criteria for organ donation after cardiac death. The criteria for removal of vital organs is that the surgeon must wait for between 2 and 5 minutes after the last heartbeat.
Michael Cook
Creative commons
determining death
donation after cardiac death
- Queensland legalises ‘assisted dying’ - September 19, 2021
- Is abortion a global public health emergency? - April 11, 2021
- Dutch doctors cleared to euthanise dementia patients who have advance directives - November 22, 2020
More Stories
Ukrainian man sells suicide powders on the internet from a flat in Kyiv
A Ukrainian man from Kyiv has been sending parcels of suicide powder to the United Kingdom since at least 2020...
UK parliament report on ‘assisted dying’ refuses to take sides
A long-anticipated report from the British Parliament on “assisted dying” has not made any dramatic recommendations, to the dismay of supporters and...
Australia’s Northern Territory ponders ‘assisted dying’
The government of Australia’s Northern Territory is surveying residents to assess the scope of a voluntary assisted dying law. All states have...
Is ‘assisted dying’ really about autonomy?
One of the most puzzling features of assisted dying is the distinction between physician assisted suicide and euthanasia. In the...
Doctors of death
In countries where “assisted dying” in some form or other is legal, doctors are forming professional organisations to give guidance...
Euthanasia activist says that today’s execution in Alabama is bad publicity for his movement
This afternoon, Alabama time, Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, will be executed in Holman Correctional Facility. This will be the second...