How come paramedics can pronounce someone dead at the scene?
LOL! The reason us Paramedics can declare someone dead is because it is QUITE obvious when someone is dead. After 6 minutes (at room temperature) the brain starts to die. When we arrive and the person has been “down” for over an hour and they have lividity (pooling of the blood), have rigor (muscle stiffness) and are cold to touch, I promise they are quite dead! Or if we arrive on a trauma scene and the person has “Signs that are incompatible with life” like missing their head or a gunshot wound directly to the heart. Yes they are dead. It is not too hard to figure out when someone is dead. I think what most people don’t know it that the resuscitation efforts we do in the field are exactly the same thing they do in the hospital. Meaning that if we do not get a pulse back on the way to the hospital, then 99999 times out of 100000 the hospital will not be able to do anything to bring them back eather. However this is a very good question!
