So for him, machines were pumping air into his lungs, but was his heart also being stimulated by something to keep beating? Is that where confusion about brain death comes from, when the brain is as good as a rock but just enough is there to tell the heart to beat?
That's the thing: the heart doesn't need electric input from any other organ, including the brain, just to beat. It has its own inbuilt "miniature" nervous system in the sinus node. Neuro transmitters such as noradrenaline/adrenaline affect heart rate, yes, but even in the absence of neuro transmitters, the heart will maintain a base rhythm as long as the surrounding tissues allow for it. If this mechanism did not exist, we wouldn't have these literal zomkids.
Holy hell! I had no idea. That makes a lot of sense and is kind of brilliant of the human body. I've heard "heart death" being described as separate from brain death before and didn't understand how that worked. Thanks for enlightening me!
Heart cells will coalesce into a film and pulse when cultured in a dish. It’s freaky as all shit, but just what they do.
"Heart death" and "brain death" only became two separate entities with the invention of the ventilator. I've heard the saying "short term miracle but long term curse", and I think it's apt. It's usually the other organs that fail long before the heart, because unlike the cardiac muscle, they do need input from the brain to do their job correctly. But as we can all see, people with strong hearts and robust immune systems (the immune system does not come from the brain; it's a combination of blood marrow, spleen, liver, gut) can last for years on end on a vent.
That's strange, usually their brain liquified rather than hardens, from what I've read. Either one is horrific!
I'm gonna guess based on the lack of anatomical structures that what happened here is the brain turned into fluid cysts, luna style, which then became one giant cyst, and the capsule of that cyst then calcified as it had nowhere to go.
That's because the author is a biologist and a Catholic priest. Yes they exist. Yes they are heckin valid.
..are those bruises or spots of decay...
In my day, girls didn't get autism. Girls were just kinda weird.
Like I said, clinically stupid. She's like a parrot copying words without understanding them.
