--- title: "Professor of Medicine Says Death Appears to Be Reversible" description: "A near-death experience expert insists that one's heart stopping doesn't have to be the end with current medical interventions that can help patients cheat death. In an interview with The Telegraph, Sam Parnia of New York University's Langone Medical Center insisted that by and large, the medical industry is still very behind on the concepts of […]" date: "2024-08-31" modified: "2024-08-31" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/death-reversible-doctor-studies" categories: - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" - "RX and Medicine" tags: - "cardiac arrest" - "death" - "heart attacks" - "resurrection" --- # Professor of Medicine Says Death Appears to Be Reversible ![A near-death experience expert insists that one's heart stopping doesn't have to be the end with current death-defying interventions.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* A [near-death experience expert]() insists that one's heart stopping doesn't have to be the end, with current medical interventions that can help patients cheat death. In an [interview with *The Telegraph*](), associate professor of medicine at New York University's Langone Medical Center Sam Parnia insisted that by and large, the medical industry is still very behind on the concepts of death and dying. According to Parnia, studies from the [last five years]() — including some undertaken by his own [eponymous lab]() at NYU — have suggested that our brains remain "salvageable for not only hours, but possibly days" after death. In one such Parnia Lab study from last year, for instance, researchers found that some cardiac arrest patients had [memories of their death experiences]() up to an hour after their hearts had stopped, and brain activity from those same patients suggests a similar phenomenon. For 40 percent of those subjects, brain activity also returned to normal or near-normal an hour into cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Combined with other studies, including a [particularly gruesome one out of Yale]() that involved decapitated pig brains being revived up to 14 hours after their beheadings, the seemingly death-defying doctor said that the idea that death is a definitive state is "simply a social convention that does not conform with scientific realities." "If we remove that social label that makes us think everything stops, and look at it objectively, \[death is\] basically an injury process," Parnia told the *Telegraph*. By his reasoning, that process can be reversed not only by using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines, which acts as a body's heart and lungs when those functions have failed, but also specific cocktails of drugs that have been demonstrated to aid in the process of resurrection in [animal studies](). Parnia told the British newspaper that he believes his team is the only one in the world giving patients these so-called "[CPR cocktails]()" — which can include epinephrine, the diabetes drug metformin, vitamin C, the antidiuretic drug vasopressin, and the fatigue supplement Sulbutiamine — to cardiac arrest patients in efforts to revive them. The 52-year-old doctor is so confident in his approach that he's taken to telling people that given his age and gender, he's likely "going to have a cardiac arrest soon," and that he shouldn't have to die then when interventions like ECMO and CPR cocktails are at his disposal. "If I have a heart attack and die tomorrow, why should I stay dead?" the death defier asked the newspaper. "That’s not necessary anymore." Obviously, Parnia's idea of post-death revival is extremely dependent upon timing — but if he has his way, we might start seeing beyond death less as a final frontier, and more as something reversible in its immediate aftermath or even beyond. **More on death:** [*Woman Puzzled When Hospital Tells Her She's Dead*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()