Can a dead person start breathing again after like an hour?

Question

If someone wasnt embaulmed(sp?) can their bodies start up again and of course, they'd be brain dead and all that but can the body just start up again even if for a few seconds?

Answer 1

A few seconds after dying, yes. A few seconds after embaulming, no. My mom works in a hospital and has seen it happen many times before where someone would be pronounced dead, the doctor would call the family, and then all of a sudden the guy is ringing the bell asking for water like, 10 minutes later! But after they have been embaulmed, no they cannot start breathing again or come back to life in any way (because all their blood has been replaced with a preservative called Formaldihyde (sp?)). The body is usually taken to be preserved within a couple hours after being pronounced dead by their doctor. The body can MOVE however at any point in time after death, embaulmed or not. As the muscles start to contract and rigomortis sets in, many bodies move, jerk, sit up, and even vomit or relieve themselves! So that could be considered "starting up" but they don't have any control over it and they are definately 100% dead at that point. However, this has only happened in rare incidents, and once the person is dead for 10 minutes or more, they're not coming back. So to answer your original question, the would not start breathing again after an hour. Their brain would have been too deprived of oxygen to be able to come back to life. But up to a couple minutes, yes, it's entirely possible. Even without CPR or other medical help, a person can die and then come back quickly.

That used to happen all the time before Formaldihyde was used. Somebody would come very close to death and their pulse and breathing would slow to such a light pace that they were thought to be dead. That's how the idea of a "wake" came about. The person's friends and family would come see the body and wait to see if he "wakes up". But if he didn't wake up, he would be buried very soon after before the body would start to deteriorate and smell. So many people were buried alive this way. They would come back to life again and could not get out of the casket. Which then led to the phrase "saved by the bell". Strings would be tied to the persons hands and then strung into the undertaker's house and attached to a set of bells. If the person woke up, they could start pulling the strings to ring the bells, and then the undertaker would come dig them up. They realized this after they would dig up bodies for some reason or another and the casket would be torn apart by scratches like they were trying to claw their way out. Pretty scary. Glad they use the Formaldihyde now...

Kind of interesting. Good question though! Not many people realize how many people "come back from the dead" like that!


In response to Walrusff19: That's only happened like, once or twice in the whole 30 years she's worked there. It's very possible for the doctor/nurse to get caught up in dealing with 100 other patients, being around 30 loud machines and oxygen tanks, having another patient in the room that needs to be moved immediately, and more, and they just happen to miss that one breath or heartbeat before pronouncing them dead. It's not like it happens a lot or like they run the person down to be preserved immediately. Usually it takes well over two hours to get the body prepared, get them and their belongings cleaned up, contact the family, and more. So they'd have plenty of time to "come back" if they were really going to. Which isn't the case. 99.9999% of people die and stay dead. There's always just those rare, rare incidents where something doesn't go according to plan and it just happens. It could happen in any hospital, they're not "incompetant" people or anything. I'm sorry if I made it seem that way, I didn't mean to. I was just pointing out an incident to back up my point that there's always freaky, unpredictable cases where something doesn't happen the way it should.

Answer 2

Occasionally a person falls through ice, stops breathing, and is rescued after quite some time, only to start breathing again and come back to life. I've heard of times approaching half an hour. There is not always severe brain damage in cases like this because (a) there's a reflex that the body goes into under water, in which more oxygenated blood is diverted to the brain and (b) in extreme cold all metabolic processes are slowed down. I think in some cases of drowning under ice a person who has been out for as long as 15 minutes has suffered little or no brain damage. But an hour is a long time, and the person would probably not be able to be brought around, and if so might have severe brain damage. But these are the only conditions under which what you ask about might be possible.

Answer 3

At the time of death, the body's protective mechanisms will make the body gasp for air. This is a normal reaction which may last for several minutes, but in time it will diminish as the brain dies. Now an hour later, I don't believe so. By then livor mortise would have been setting in and rigor mortise beginning to set in the small muscle masses. But no, the body just won't start up again. I've been in medicine for over 25 years and have never seen this.

Answer 4

If a person is pronounced dead, that's it. Kaput. No brain waves, no heartbeat, no life. And especially if they've been embalmed. Ain't no coming back from that.

A dead person WILL move ...only if it is "fresh", usually less than an hour after death. When the embalming fluid is coursing through the arteries, it will pass to the veins so the embalmer can drain the mixture of blood and fluid. The fluid will hit the nerves and voila, the body will move.

Several questions on death tonight...someone expecting something to happen?

Answer 5

no. after an hour like you mentioned it is not possible for your body to just start up again. i see that the previous answer said that thier mom works at a hospital and these dead people keep asking for water....this is a scary thing because apparently the doctors at this hospital are not properly evaluating the patients and taking the steps necessary to pronounce them dead..the only people that are mythed to come back alive are those suffering from hypothermia that are said to be able to revive after extended periods of time but after attempts to recesitate them have been exhausted and the body is warmed up to within normal range and are the diagnosed as dead then they too will not come alive...by the way you may want to avoid the hospital that the previous answerer's mother works at...they dont sound very competant.

Answer 6

not after an hour - after a certain amount of minutes it's possible for muscle twitches to happen or the occasional escaping of air (often mistaken for a breath)...but the heart would not be able to start working properly after being deceased that long, plus - blood begins to coagulate very quickly, causing organ death. Lack of oxygen after even a short period of time would also cause organ death and brain death.

Answer 7

I think so yes....it's a body reaction from what I have heard. Thats' why you hear sounds from the morgue sometimes.

Answer 8

no because when they are embalmed all of the blood is drained out and replaced with formaldihyde. they aren't coming back....