Woman Declared Dead by Police Turns Out to be Alive

reply to post by Staysay29


Not read anything to say what actually was the cause of this misunderstanding

reply to post by StarTraveller


if you or anyone else finds out it would be interesting to know. Im curious because its not normal to leave that part out...

reply to post by Staysay29


All I can find is quotes saying 'No foul play' so god only knows what actually happened. Guess time will tell. Will keep my eyes open for anything though

Just to add, there are many natural conditions both cardiac and otherwise that would lower the pulse below what could be detected by touch, an ECG machine would detect any signs of life and therefore the EMS personnel should have been able to detect life if the officers had not stopped them from entering the room, also there are various places to check for a pulse, not just the wrist so again will be interesting to see what procedure the Officer used to determine death was present. If it was just a wrist pulse then this can vanish if the blood pressure drops below 90 systolic (the higher number of bloody pressure measurement i.e 125/75 etc.

Originally posted by StarTraveller
Rigor mortis: The stiffness occurring after death
from the post mortem breakdown of enzymes in the
muscle fibre.

That's a good list. The body I found had rigor mortis and the cops never called any medics in to verify the death, that's probably why.

I used to think that this happened a lot more where people thought dead turned out not to be, before we had all out modern advances in medical technology. But I guess even today, it still happens, especially in situations like this where the modern medical training/technology wasn't put to work.

Originally posted by hybridkate
reply to post by mydarkpassenger

 

They get a core body temp from the liver, not your but

Well, I think my scenario would be funnier.

reply to post by mydarkpassenger


That can be added to the list of 'checking for signs of life I guess' hehe

Originally posted by GogoVicMorrow
Well.. she had faint vital signs so something was wrong with her right?
They should have let a paramedic in to check though? I thought they had to at least call the morgue and have them pronounce her dead before they could do anything else?

If the police responding were trained as say EMT's then they could, I guess, make a determination, but even in the absence of vital signs (which can be missed esp. if someone is not a medical professional) why would they do so. Some situations I understand: Clearly dead ie rigor mortis or lividity, decay etc. But if there is a question, then roll the medics in and let them take over.

reply to post by daddysreturn
Rode a busy rescue company in a city of 50,000 in the early part of my career. Any time a patient or a body was found unresponsive to verbal or pain stimuli, certain protocol steps were followed. These steps were and still are put in to effect by paramedics only. It deminishes the chances of a "lay" person making the call on if someone is viable or not.The repercussions of an event like this happening are career ending.

reply to post by 4TRUCK


I 100% agree with this buddy, why it went the way it did I will never know

Why is a police officer pronouncing death??? In the UK, its only Dr's or Nurses (with Dr consent), that can pronounce the time of death?

reply to post by jrmcleod


Paramedics/ECP's can too buddy but I am sure we are not the only ones asking how this could have happened ?

reply to post by 4TRUCK

The repercussions of an event like this happening are career ending.

I sure hope so.