Lucid dying - what some patients experience as they’re going through CPR
<p>A study of people who received cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in hospital has found that some of them had what’s being dubbed “lucid experiences of death,” accompanied by spikes in brain activity.</p>
<p>The research found that roughly one in five CPR survivors described unique experiences, including feeling separated from their bodies, observing the events without pain or distress, and a meaningful evaluation of life.</p>
<p>These experiences were different to hallucinations, dreams, or CPR-induced consciousness, according to the researchers, who presented their findings at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2022 conference.</p>
<p>The international team of researchers collected data on 567 patients whose hearts stopped beating, in UK and US hospitals, between May 2017 and March 2020.</p>
<p>While they were all treated immediately, fewer than 10% of these people were ultimately discharged from hospital.</p>
<p>In addition to hearing the patients’ experiences, the researchers observed spikes in brain activity – specifically, in so-called gamma, delta, theta, alpha and beta waves.</p>
<p>In some cases, these activity spikes were observed when CPR had been going on for up to an hour.</p>
<p>“These recalled experiences and brain wave changes may be the first signs of the so-called near-death experience, and we have captured them for the first time in a large study,” says lead investigator Dr Sam Parnia, an intensive care physician and associate professor in the Department of Medicine at New York University Langone Health, US.</p>
<p>“Our results offer evidence that while on the brink of death and in a coma, people undergo a unique inner conscious experience, including awareness without distress.”</p>
<p>While plenty of people have personal accounts of near-death experiences before, they’re difficult to judge empirically.</p>
<p>“These lucid experiences cannot be considered a trick of a disordered or dying brain, but rather a unique human experience that emerges on the brink of death,” says Parnia.</p>
<p>It may be linked to disinhibition – the release of barriers in the brain as it shuts down.</p>
<p>The researchers are keen to investigate the lucid dying experiences further.</p>
<p><strong>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/lucid-dying-cpr/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Ellen Phiddian.</strong></p>
<p><em>Image: Shutterstock</em></p>
