Clinical death

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Clinical death occurs when the heartbeat and breathing have stopped. Since regular breathing is impossible when the heart is stopped, clinical death is synonymous with cardiac arrest or cardiac death.

The reversal of clinical death is sometimes possible through cardiopulmonary resuscitation, defibrillation, epinephrine injection, and other treatments. Resuscitation after more than 4 to 6 minutes of clinical death at normal body temperature is difficult. Usually brain damage or later brain death results after 10 to 15 minutes even if cardiac resuscitation is successful. Longer intervals of clinical death can be survived under conditions of hypothermia. Hypothermia also improves outcomes after resuscitation from clinical death even if body temperature is not lowered until after resuscitation.