Types of human death. Classification

Death is a state of the body in which vital organs ceased their activities. As a consequence, irreversible processes of destruction take place at the intracellular level. There are different types of death, stages, characteristics and methods of diagnosis. Let us consider them in more detail.

General information

Death, concept, types of this state are considered by people from ancient times. The mystery of the cessation of life has always frightened society and made it somehow justify this phenomenon. In ancient times this was promoted by religion. Today, to the fact of death, a person is more pragmatic. At present, the phenomenon is studied by science, first of all, in order to gain knowledge about the prolongation of life. When investigating irreversible changes that occur both during and after death, scientists are trying to identify the reasons for their occurrence. The main goal is to identify ways to slow down the processes that shorten life.

Types of biological death

The natural cessation of life is conditioned, for example, by the onset of a certain (advanced) age. In this case, it is assumed that death has come by itself, that is, nonviolently. Meanwhile, the cessation of life can be conditioned by the action of external factors. For example, an infringement on the part of another entity. In this case, the investigation of the circumstances of the death of a person is carried out by criminalists.

Types of violent death are classified according to certain criteria. First of all, the external characteristics of the body are distinguished. Types, signs of death are of practical importance in the investigation of crimes. For example, the death of a subject may come from a stupid blow, a shot from a firearm, beatings inflicted with particular cruelty. Types of causing death directly affect the amount of punishment for the perpetrator.

Stages of

At the biological level, death occurs in three stages:

1. At the first stage, for various hidden or noticeable factors, the functions of the organs responsible for blood circulation and respiration begin to suppress. The efficiency of these systems, however, does not stop. It is simply not enough to meet the body's oxygen needs.
2. At the second stage, self-regulation begins. In the course of it internal processes are activated, by which the oppression of the functioning of organs is compensated. In this condition, muscle tissue begins to contract. This leads to increased breathing. The last internal resources of the organism are activated.
3. At the last stage, there is a clinical death. In this state, the heart and breathing stops. Clinical death can last from 2 minutes to half an hour. Everything will depend on external and other factors. During this period, the last supply of oxygen is spent on oxidative reactions within the cells. After that, the nervous tissue begins to break down.

Terminal states

Any kind of death of a person comes after certain stages. In the complex, they can last from a few minutes / hours to several days. Terminal states are pre-conditioning stage, agony and, in fact, clinical death. The latter is present in any case, regardless of the rate at which vital functions of the organism cease functioning. In this state there is a chance to prevent death. For this purpose, resuscitation measures are provided . If they were not carried out or were ineffective, the life of the organism ceases.

Types, signs of death: pre-conditioning

It is accompanied by a violation of the central nervous system, a decrease in pressure, centralization of blood circulation. The patient has a breathing disorder. It becomes irregular, shallow, perhaps more frequent. Due to lack of ventilation in the lungs, oxygen deficiency occurs in the tissues. Oxidation reactions remain as the main metabolic process. The duration of the preadonal state varies. It may be completely absent. This is the case, for example, with mechanical severe cardiac damage. Pre-conditioning can last long enough. For example, if the body can somehow compensate for the attenuation of vital functions.

Agony

It is an attempt of an organism with the depressed functions of vital systems to use the latest resources. At the beginning of this stage, the pressure rises, the rhythm of the heart begins to recover, and active respiratory movements are carried out. Meanwhile, the lungs are practically not ventilated. Together with this, the contraction of the respiratory muscles, responsible for exhalation and inspiration, begins. For a short time, consciousness can recover. Due to oxygen deficiency in tissues, foods that do not pass oxidation quickly accumulate. Exchange processes occur through an anaerobic scheme.

In a state of agony due to burning in tissues of ATP a person loses a strand of 50-80 g of its mass. They are also called "the weight of the soul." As a rule, the agony lasts not for long - no more than 5-6 minutes. In rare cases, it can last for half an hour. After this, the pressure decrease begins, the contractions of the heart muscle stop, and the breath stops.

The last stage

Duration of clinical evaluation - from the moment of cessation of the heart, central nervous system and respiration before the start of irreversible changes in the brain. Anaerobic metabolism is continued at the expense of stocks accumulated in cells. As soon as these resources run out, the nervous tissue dies. With absolute absence of oxygen, necrosis of cells in the cerebral cortex and cerebellum begins after 2-2.5 minutes. These departments are most sensitive to O ₂ deficiency. After the death of the cortex, restoration of life-supporting functions is impossible. As a result, biological death occurs .

Features

With effective resuscitation measures, the duration of clinical death usually takes time that has passed from cardiac arrest to the beginning of the organism's return to life. Modern methods, such as maintaining blood pressure at the minimum necessary level, blood purification, mechanical ventilation, transfusion or donor blood circulation, allow to maintain life in the nervous tissue for a rather long period.

Under normal conditions, clinical death lasts no more than 5-6 minutes. Its duration is influenced by many factors. In particular, this is the cause, the type of death, the body temperature, the level of excitation of the organism, the age, the conditions in which the subject was, and so on. In some cases, this stage can last up to 30 minutes. For example, it allows such kinds of human death as drowning in cold water, severe frostbite. In these situations, because of the reduced temperature, the metabolic processes, including in the brain, slow down considerably. With the help of artificial preventive hypothermia, the duration of the stage can be increased up to 2 hours.

Along with this, under the influence of certain circumstances, certain types of clinical death differ in a shortened duration. For example, it happens if death comes from great blood loss. In this situation, the pathological changes of the nervous tissue, due to which the restoration of life is impossible, develop until the heart stops.

Specificity of classification

Despite the fact that the problem of cessation of life remains to the end unsolved, in medicine long enough the types of death are differentiated according to a number of criteria. First of all, there are categories. There are two of them - violent and non-violent death. The second criterion is the genus. On it and allocate the following types of non-violent death:

1. Physiological.
2. Pathological
3. Suddenly.

There is a classification by genus and for the cessation of life due to external factors. So, there are such kinds of violent death as:

• Murder.
• Suicide.
• Death in the event of an accident.

Additional category

Two types of death were described above. Classification into two categories was adopted long ago and there was a fairly long time. Modern medicine distinguishes 3 types of death. At present, brain death is considered as a separate state. It should be said that this category is also not fully understood, as well as other types of clinical death.

Diagnosis

One of the most difficult stages of classification is the stage of identifying the cause of death. It can be basic, intermediate and immediate. Scientists, fearing to make a mistake in diagnosing, created special life tests or formed special burial conditions. For example, in Munich for more than a century there was a burial vault where the deceased's hand was wrapped in a cord from a bell. He only rang one time. As it turned out, this was due to the resolution of rigor mortis. Meanwhile, in practice, not one case is known when the morgue was delivered by the living, to whom the doctors mistakenly diagnosed the types of mild death.

Checking the respiratory function

Types of death are ascertained by a set of criteria. One of them is a check of the function of the respiratory system. To date, there are no reliable signs of its preservation. Depending on the external conditions, doctors use a fluff, a cold mirror, perform auscultation of breathing. Winslow's test is also used. It consists in placing a vessel with water on the person's chest. By fluctuating its level, judgments about respiratory movements are judged. In this case, a gust of wind, high humidity in the room, passing vehicles, high temperatures can affect the results of any of the studies. Accordingly, the conclusions will be incorrect.

Preservation of cardiac function

Diagnosing the types of death, doctors perform auscultation of the heart, palpation of the pulse of peripheral and central vessels, as well as cardiac shock. However, these studies can not be considered completely reliable. Evidence and quite interesting, even with minimal circulation, is the Magnus test. It consists in a tight constriction of the finger. If there is blood circulation, there will be a blanching of the cover, a cyanotic shade appears on the periphery. When the constriction is removed, the skin color will recover.

Preservation of the central nervous system

This indicator is the most important for doctors diagnosing certain types of death. At the scene of the incident, it is basically impossible to state the death of the brain. Preservation of the CNS is checked by the absence or presence of consciousness, muscle relaxation, passive position of the trunk, reaction to an external stimulus (ammonia or minor pain effects). An informative sign is the corneal reflex. It shows the presence / absence of the pupil's reaction to light.