Online CPR Certification Blog
Death by natural cause
Date: December 16th, 2013
Maybe the actions that lead to death are the ones that should be used to determine if death is natural or not, and if it is not, then what type of death is it? When time comes to call it off in this world, there are things (drugs and equipments) that doctors use o prolong a person’s stay on earth. Doctors will in many times put a patient on life-support system for different reasons. In the process, time comes where nature has to be left to take its course and the system is withdrawn. If the action is not triggered by the improvement of the health condition of the patient, then natural death will take its course and a life will end.
Death without Interference
Dying on a hospital bed has a natural view than when a patient is surrounded by residents and doctors on an ICU bed. It seems more peaceful to simply switch off the body systems without detachment of any equipment than the struggle; there is when one seems peaceful with pipes into his or her body, when deep inside the patient knows that those systems are part of his or her life, at least for the time they will be in the ICU room. If the technology used to prolong life are effective enough to give the patient another leaf of life, then why not embrace it and live longer.
Induced Unnatural Death
Apart from using equipments to make life longer and suppress natural death, at times the same technology is used to induce death to stop suffering. Though the cases are rare, there have been cases of termination of life to stop suffering. Away from the health sector, this act is seen in battlefields where when the bodies of comrades are severed beyond salvage, termination of life becomes the only option. This is because the time and resources to try to save a life are not at disposal. Many can argue that it is the right way to go while others will want the person to wait until the last breath is exhaled from the lungs.
It is unnatural for humankind to end the life of one of their own. Prolonging the same life is not a choice but the right thing to do and that is why there are medical procedures like Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). This is an emergency procedure to try to preserve brain functions until another set of measures can be applied to restore the circulation of blood, which can be achieved if the breathing is revived. This can happen is such cases where a patient has a cardiac arrest, like in the case of Fabrise Muamba the soccer player. Basing the importance of the life prolonging equipments on the case of Muamba, then if there is a chance of making life longer by avoiding natural deaths, then medics can keep on trying until such technologies like CPR cannot do their magic.