The Scandal of Inaccurate Death Diagnoses and the Fear of Premature Burials

This week, The Curious Clinicians are bringing back an episode from the archive that was originally posted in December, 2021.

Tony joined Dr. Adam Rodman as a guest on the Bedside Rounds podcast. We were thrilled to share that episode here. 

How can we medically tell whether or not someone is alive or dead? The answer is more complicated than you’d think. This episode was a live podcast Adam and Tony gave at the Massachusetts Chapter of the American College of Physicians annual meeting on October 16, 2021. They track the evolution and controversies of the death exam, from a trans-Atlantic scandal surrounding a possible vivisection, a 19th century “X-prize” to determine a technology that could diagnose death, the important distinction between “permanent” and irreversible, and the mysterious Lazarus phenomenon.

Link to episode page: http://bedside-rounds.org/episode-65-the-last-breath/