12-26-2009, 07:40 PM
You are clinically dead when the heart and respiration stops. All hope is not out, because in a certain timeframe after cardiac arrest, it is in many cases possible to jumpstart the heart again, and get respiration going by applying first-aid. Even if the first aid does not succeed in getting the heart and respiration started again, it may give the patient enough oxygen so that the brain does not die, and more advanced methods of starting the heart can be applied.