Doctors in Canada have made the startling discovery that when we die our brain will still remain active for another ten minutes.
The breakthrough discovery could change the way we look at medical practices and organ donations.
They made the discovery in an intensive care unit whilst observing the body of someone who had been declared clinically dead.
Their case study shows that the patient had been dead after a series of routine observations, including showing no signs of a pulse and unresponsive pupils. However the test shows the deceased’s brain had remained active, according to The Independent it was ‘experiencing the same kind of brain waves that are seen during deep sleep’.
The study also pointed out that the discovery could potentially lead to medical and ethical roadblocks, doctor’s have claimed to have seen “single delta wave bursts persisted following the cessation of both the cardiac rhythm and arterial blood pressure (ABP)”.
According to The Independent Only one in four of those studied have exhibited ‘the long-lasting and mysterious brain activity’, with brain activity in most patients stopping before the heart stops beating.
However all their brains behaved differently in the minutes after they died – this only adds more mystery about what happens to the brain after death.
Doctor’s aren’t sure about why this happens and have warned that we shouldn’t really draw too many conclusions from the discovery.
However they believe their findings are not a result of any mistakes made as all of their equipment was working fine at the time.
