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To get a professional opinion on the matter, we contacted Iris Gorfinkel, M.D., a general practitioner, medical researcher, and the founder of PrimeHealth Family Practice and Clinical Research in Toronto, Ontario.
"I suppose the story starts with how death was determined in the distant past. It was a basic definition. No heart, no pulse, no breathing, no response to pain," Gorfinkel told Bored Panda.
"Later, it involved things like rigor mortis and putrefaction, but the definition has changed over history, and now [it's more complicated]. And of course, different countries have different definitions of what constitutes death."
"Most of them are based on no movements, no breathing, no pulse, no reflexes, and no response to pain. But in a lot of Western countries, they also include brain death, and that's actually a legal definition. That's where the body is alive, but the brain has stopped working because of injury or illness. Now, true brain death—that's not actually a very common event. It only happens in about one in 50 deaths. That's according to the Cleveland Clinic," the doctor explained.
"There are confirmatory tests to determine brain death, including CT and MRI and a bunch of other brain studies. But modern medicine has long been able to keep the body going even with little to no brain input. And of course, that's led to all kinds of legal and ethical debates," Gorfinkel added.
To her, it's a bit of a surprise that there's no one definition of brain death. "It's often left to individual hospitals, states, and countries, which have varying guidelines when it comes to what defines brain death. But it is an important concept, especially when it comes to organ donation."
And there can be quite a bit of variance, depending on which part of the world you look at. For example, "Eastern traditions tend to emphasize the interconnectedness of body and spirit, so that has huge implications for doctors like me. We're trying to be wise about cultural beliefs so that we can treat patients according to their traditions around death, so we can deliver the kindness and compassion that's needed."
In clinical terms, Canaday, who describes her experience in her memoir, Independence Ave, had experienced what has been called the Lazarus effect or autoresuscitation. This rare phenomenon, whose exact cause remains unknown, occurs when a patient declared dead from cardiac arrest suddenly shows signs of life, making it seem like they've returned from the dead despite never actually dying.
Her case is particularly fascinating, as the majority of people don't live long after their "resurrection." Of the 65 documented cases between 1982 and 2018, only 18 people made a full recovery.
To understand just how lucky she is, we need to know what happens to the body in these situations. "A lot of the time it's what's called anoxic injury," doctor Gorfinkel said.
Anoxia refers to a lack of oxygen, and "if a tissue doesn't get enough of it—let's take the muscles—they're going to become stiff. They're going to become really weak. It's going to be a lot harder to do basic activities. That muscle can be permanently injured, so that person may not ever regain full function of their muscles."
"Anoxic injury can happen to the brain. If the brain doesn't have enough oxygen, it's going to affect a person's concentration, memory, and ability to plan and make decisions. That could have serious impacts on just living day to day. It's going to damage their nerves, so they might have a problem with balance and coordination, and the organs themselves will be at risk, especially the kidneys. The body in a near-death experience goes into overdrive. This actually happened to individuals who had severe COVID-19. We saw this hyperinflammatory response that can further injure organs and tissues," she said.
"Then you have the psychological effects, like post-traumatic stress disorder—the flashbacks, the nightmares, and the anxiety."
"In response to a near-death experience, a person's basic personality can change. It can become a lot harder to regulate emotions because priorities just completely realign after that kind of an experience. It might be difficult for them to have normal social interactions," Gorfinkel continued.
Doctor Gorfinkel has had a number of patients who have experienced this as well and said it often "serves as a literal wake-up call to force that person to re-examine how they live life."
"For a lot of people, this is nothing short of a spiritual awakening. It makes them question how they lived before and what they prioritized. I've had patients who've actually said they feel that God or the cosmos has determined their lives matter and they're here for a reason. And now they have to find that reason."
"I love that because that's actually a really forward-looking way of understanding life, even in the absence of a near-death experience."
She believes such a case can be an invaluable lesson to those who merely read about it, too. "[They] lead me to ask, well, what if a near-death experience were in fact a thought experiment? So, what would you personally do differently? How would your priorities change? Because the truth to living every day as if it's your last is that it's a constant exercise in daily mindfulness. So, it sort of makes a lot of sense to think about every day as our last, because ultimately the only gift we have is time. And the only time we have to live in is, in fact, the present."
