MSI Press Blog

  When Carl, dying of cancer, said, as part of his advance directive, that he would want to be resuscitated, doctors and hospice workers always reacted with surprise. Of course, it was his right. At the time, I just wanted to support him in his preferences. In retrospect, the question arises, resuscitated into what? And, is resuscitation even possible? It would seem that the answer to the second question would eliminate the need to answer the first. In short, there are two stages (or kinds of) death: clinical death and biological death. Clinical death occurs when a person’s heart stops beating. About four to six minutes later, brain cells start to die from the loss of oxygen and biological death occurs. Resuscitation may be possible during clinical death. But it’s not possible during biological death, the time at which life ceases.  Biological death is determined by the irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brainstem. This is often referred...

  When Carl , MSI Press LLC graphic designer and co-founder, was dying from cancer of unknown primary , which has a very grim prognosis and no routinely accepted treatment, he wanted only hope -- that he would be in the 1% that has been reported to survive CUP at least for a year or more. He steadfastly avoided talking about death with his children, friends, and me. He resolutely did not want to talk to a professional of any sorts although he was willing to talk to a priest friend. Unfortunately, he was semi-comatose and near death before even one meeting could take place, given his frequent unplanned trips to the ER and regular trips out of town for chemotherapy. (The oncologist made an educated guess as to the possible primary cancer and gave two drugs, one a wide-sprectrum which generally does not work well because it is not targeted and the other targeted against his best-guess that the cancer started in the GI tract.) So, when the priest was finally able to connect with us, it...