Off topic reference: for more on the subject of Being Buried Alive , see : “A Cabinet Of Medical Curiousities” By Jan Bondeson
It covers this topic quite well.
Attention C#3!The inside of your musty head is a exercise wheel;
in which two gerbils, Vanity and Credulity by
name, tussle fruitlessly over the walnut that
represents your banal & pointless existance.
BurnMeUp, just wanted you to know that your sig line took on a whole new meaning for me after the last line of your post. Now I’ve got to go to the Mayo clinic for an appetite transplant. Thanks a lot…
“It is impossible to experience one’s own death objectively and still carry a tune.” – Woody Allen from Getting Even
MrKnowItAll: I saw the same thing: Cadaver Helper. bleah
BurnMeUp hit it pretty much on the head. Here’s where I don’t have to do CPR:
Jeremy…
I can think of no more stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man than a fire engine - Kurt Vonnegut
Konrad posted 10-13-1999 05:21 PM
Tanstaafl posted 10-14-1999 11:40 AM
(emphasis mine)
I’m confused. Aren’t EMTs medical professionals?
As for the question of why it would matter whether someone can declare someone dead:
I think I might have been qualified to pronounce dead the guy who was hit by a freight train near my house last week. Or more succinctly, his leg and lower torso.
Does one need to make the pronouncement at the scene of the face/head, or will just any old body part do? Was it wrong for the paramedics to put the smaller debris into Target store shopping bags before dumping them into the official body bag? Boy, those guys were making some pronouncements, believe me.
No shit, Nickrz?
As long as the leg and torso end up with the rest of the guy eventually, I don’t see the problem with tossing them into another bag first.
“I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island
Regarding the questions about EMTs being medical professionals, and to what degree they can determine whether resuscitation is/is not appropriate.
Laws vary from state. EMTs licensed within a particular should be very familiar with their state’s laws, since these are tested in their licensing exam.
(If you’ve read this thread this far, you’ve read worse, continue at your own risk)
In Texas, I was doing CPR on a highway worker hit by a car going too fast for a work zone. It was June, 105+, the guy was in his 60s, and not bleeding from where he used to have legs… and it was 20 minutes from when we started CPR until the EMT crew arrived. They called in the situation to the docs at their Emergency Room, and pronounced the guy dead on the scene.
In other words, the EMTs did not have the authority to pronounce the guy themselves, but had the medical expertise to relay information to the doc in the ER, who did have the authority to pronounce the guy dead.
As I was unlicensed in TX, I did not have the legal authority to pronounce him dead.
Sue from El Paso
members.aol.com/majormd/index.html
There is a book out called “May God Have Mercy On Your Soul” about executions in Chicago. The one interesting case was a murderer was hanged and declared dead. His body was claimed right away and using needles and hot water bottles proceded to revive him. A guard saw it and stopped the ambulance and the body was held for a hour so it could not be revived. There are many cases where someone hung themselves and were brought back to life. A judge noted that since he was declared dead he was a nonperson and could not be touched by the law, he could do whatever he wanted… “Inspector Clay’s dead. Murdered.And somebody’s responsible.”-Police Lt. in “Plan 9 From Outer Space”
Dr. Sue, I’m sure that someone from TSD will want to make sure that we alert all readers that they should contact their own health care provider to determine whether they are in fact dead, and not rely on information received via messages on a web board. 
-Melin