# Is there really a disease/condition that makes you appear dead?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-a-disease-condition-that-makes-you-appear-dead/474167>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 23, 2008, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-a-disease-condition-that-makes-you-appear-dead/474167 "2008-11-23T23:41:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-a-disease-condition-that-makes-you-appear-dead/474167/21 "2014-06-14T14:38:13Z")

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[Lazarus Syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_syndrome). Read the article for some interesting examples.

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**Author:** ![obbn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d6d6ee/32.png) [@obbn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obbn)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-a-disease-condition-that-makes-you-appear-dead/474167/22 "2014-06-14T14:52:55Z")

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> [@Fishtar](#):
>
> If you poke them with a sharp stick and they don’t jerk, then they are dead.

I have a deal with my best friend. At my funeral he had been tasked with the job of poking me I’m my casket with a stick, just to be absolutely sure.

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-a-disease-condition-that-makes-you-appear-dead/474167/23 "2014-06-14T19:03:21Z")

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Fear of being buried alive, unconscious, reached hysterical proportions in the 18th and 19th centuries, leading to the invention of [safety coffins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_coffin), having a bell or similar signaling device by which the “deceased” could attract attention, should he revive.

Even today, one reads the occasional story of someone waking up in a morgue.

So, question: What are the standard “tests” that a doctor or coroner should be expected to do, to determine if a body is really really dead? Would this include an EEG or some similar brain-wave scan to see if the patient is conscious, even if he otherwise appears dead?

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