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Weekend


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June 11, 2004

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q.  The ancient fear of being taken for dead and then buried alive has given way today to the nightmare of being kept alive indefinitely in a comatose state.  But aren't there still circumstances where modern electrocardiography and electroencephalography erroneously fail to detect life?

    A.  There are cases of severe exposure to cold or overdose of barbiturates or other drugs in which the usual sure indicators may fail, says Jan Bondeson in "A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities."  A French medical journal told of three suicide attempts where barbiturate overdoses led to erroneous death diagnoses.  In one, the victim had "actually recovered while laid out in his coffin."


     
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