Between death and second chance: When the heart refuses to let go

A rare return to life can occur minutes after being declared dead. [iStockphoto]

In the pin-drop silence following a failed resuscitation, medical professionals sometimes witness the impossible: the Lazarus Effect. Technically known as autoresuscitation, this rare phenomenon occurs when a patient’s pulse and breathing spontaneously return minutes after they have been pronounced dead.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, there have been 76 cases of autoresuscitation reported in medical literature from 1982 to 2022. But most people died within hours or days. Some people survived but had brain damage. A small number of people made a full recovery.