New research into the dying brain suggests the line between life and death may be less distinct than previously thought
Patient One was 24 years old and pregnant with her third child when she was taken off life support. It was 2014. A couple of years earlier, she had been diagnosed with a disorder that caused an irregular heartbeat, and during her two previous pregnancies she had suffered seizures and faintings. Four weeks into her third pregnancy, she collapsed on the floor of her home. Her mother, who was with her, called 911. By the time an ambulance arrived, Patient One had been unconscious for more than 10 minutes. Paramedics found that her heart had stopped.
After being driven to a hospital where she couldn’t be treated, Patient One was taken to the emergency department at the University of Michigan. There, medical staff had to shock her chest three times with a defibrillator before they could restart her heart. She was placed on an external ventilator and pacemaker, and transferred to the neurointensive care unit, where doctors monitored her brain activity. She was unresponsive to external stimuli, and had a massive swelling in her brain. After she lay in a deep coma for three days, her family decided it was best to take her off life support. It was at that point – after her oxygen was turned off and nurses pulled the breathing tube from her throat – that Patient One became one of the most intriguing scientific subjects in recent history.
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In the moments after Patient One was taken off oxygen, there was a surge of activity in her dying brain. Areas that had been nearly silent while she was on life support suddenly thrummed with high-frequency electrical signals called gamma waves. In particular, the parts of the brain that scientists consider a “hot zone” for consciousness became dramatically alive. In one section, the signals remained detectable for more than six minutes. In another, they were 11 to 12 times higher than they had been before Patient One’s ventilator was removed.
“As she died, Patient One’s brain was functioning in a kind of hyperdrive,” Borjigin told me. For about two minutes after her oxygen was cut off, there was an intense synchronisation of her brain waves, a state associated with many cognitive functions, including heightened attention and memory. The synchronisation dampened for about 18 seconds, then intensified again for more than four minutes. It faded for a minute, then came back for a third time.
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Can mom really lift car off baby tho ? Or is that just a saying ? I’m gonna go with the latter do feel free to correcte tho .
Edit : Ty for all the answers
We actually use very little of our muscles full strength. In fact most of thee initial strength gain of weight lifting isn’t actually an increase in muscle, but of control. Under enough adrenaline the limiters come off. 5-20x normal is completely possible.
The catch is the damage. Our tendons and supporting muscles are not built for the forces. Dislocations and tendon damage are severe, if full power is used. It also damages the muscle itself. A lot of the overhead is to allow for sustained functioning. Burning it all at once works, but it can’t be sustained without destroying the muscles involved.
Basically, the body self protects. When required, emergency power can be unlocked, for a price.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysterical_strength
Yes, mom likely to seriously injure herself though. Someone already posted a wiki on hysterical strength. Basically our muscles have limiters so we don’t injure ourselves(your muscles can tear your own tendons and break bones). In certain situations(such as your kids being crushed by a car) those limiters get bypassed.
I was using it in the meme-ey sense, to stand in more generally as an example for adrenaline-fueled feats of strength. I don’t know if that specific idea has a sound, well-documented reality or is just a meme though. Would not be difficult to look up where the meme came from, I’m sure.