IUBio

Braindamage due to lack of oxygen.

George sawdust at sccoast.net
Sat Mar 27 23:00:15 EST 1999


Under 'normal' situations, brain cell begin to die in large numbers around four
minutes.
By six minutes brain damage is "likely"
and over ten minutes, there WILL be irriversiable brain damage.
the first priority in CPR being to introduce O2 to the lungs.
At one time it was thought that a human could not survive with out oxygen for
more than
five to seven minutes. But there is one major area of exception involving cold
water imersion.
there are many recorded cases of subjects (usually children) spending over 15
minutes submerged
in water under 41 degrees and surviving. It is thought that the cold slows the
body to a core survival
state that allows a shutdown of all body systems, allowing the minimal blood
flow to supply the brain.
this cooling allows oxygen to remain in the cells longer.
However, it seems that one in three of these survivors suffers neurological
damage.
George Fogel


Neogen wrote:

> I'm wondering about for how long the brain can go w/o oxygen, before
> braindamage occurs? (And also, how the damage occurs..)
>
> For example, if I breathe out as much air as possible, in less than 10
> seconds I will feel the need to inhale. Does this mean that if I could go on
> longer w/o inhaling, something ..bad would happend?
>
> I've read reports of people inhaling pure N2O (as opposed to the dental 30%/
> 70% mix, or whatever amount it is :) and holding it in for minutes, would
> this mean that some sort of damage occurs?
>
> Regards,
> Neogen




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