Conscious mental activity during a deep hypothermic cardiocirculatory arrest?

During the last decade, prospective studies conducted in the etherlands, United Kingdom, and United States have revealed hat approximately 15% of cardiac arrest survivors report conscious ental activity while their hearts are stopped.1–4 This finding is uite intriguing considering that during cardiac arrest, the flow f blood to the brain is interrupted. When this happens, the rain’s electrical activity (as measured with electroencephalogaphy [EEG]) disappears after 10–20 s,5 and the patient is deeply omatose. As a consequence, patients who have a cardiac arrest are ot expected to have clear and lucid mental experiences that will e remembered. We recently conducted a retrospective study in patients who nderwent deep hypothermic cardiocirculatory arrest (DHCA) at ôpital Sacré-Coeur (a research hospital affiliated with the Univerité de Montréal) between 2005 and 2010. This surgical procedure as employed in these patients to repair aortic defects. The main bjective of the study was to estimate the prevalence of conscious ental events during DHCA. A total of 33 patients returned comleted questionnaires (70 were sent). Three patients (9%) reported onscious mental activity. The three patients were interviewed folowing the receipt of the completed questionnaires. The case of one patient is particularly worth reporting. This atient, J.S., was 31 weeks pregnant when, on October 26, 2008, she oke up feeling short of breath and weak (J.S. was then 31-yearld). She was transported to Hôpital Sacré-Coeur by ambulance. sing transoesophagial echocardiography, physicians found out hat she was suffering from an ascending aortic dissection. J.S. first underwent an emergency caesarean section. After havng successfully delivered a baby boy, she was then transferred to surgery room to undergo the replacement of the ascending aorta. he did not see or talk to the members of the surgical team, and it as not possible for her to see the machines behind the head secion of the operating table, as she was wheeled into the operating oom. J.S. was given general anesthesia and her eyes were taped hut. At one point during surgery, J.S. claims to have had an out-ofody experience (OBE). From a vantage point outside her physical ody, she apparently “saw” a nurse passing surgical instruments o the cardiothoracic surgeon. She also perceived anesthesia and chography machines located behind her head. We were able to erify that the descriptions she provided of the nurse and the achines were accurate (this was confirmed by the cardiothoacic surgeon who operated upon her). Furthermore, in the OBE tate J.S. reported feelings of peace and joy, and seeing a bright ight. Reports of independently corroborated veridical OBE perception uring cardiac arrest have previously been published (for instance,