Human death is a process caused by cerebral hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation to brain cells. The brain requires 25% of the body’s blood supply to function, and diseases that impair blood’s ability to deliver oxygen can lead to death. Even sudden trauma ultimately causes cerebral hypoxia.
Contrary to popular belief, human death is more of a process than a singular event. We often attribute the cause of death to a condition or disease or trauma, but in reality the ultimate cause of every human death is a condition called cerebral hypoxia or cerebral ischemia. To put it simply, all human death has been a direct result of oxygen deprivation to brain cells.
Cerebral hypoxia is rarely mentioned as a cause of human death, outside of specific traumas such as drowning or suffocation. When doctors talk about causes of human death, they are often referring to the conditions that led to oxygen deprivation. Causes of death are often listed in a specific order of events. The cause of death of a cancer patient can be listed as cerebral hypoxia, caused by pulmonary edema, caused by pervasive lung cancer. It may be acceptable to say that a patient’s death was caused by cancer, heart disease, or severe trauma, but true death is caused by the complications of those conditions.
The function of the body’s circulatory and respiratory systems is to provide a fresh supply of oxygen and nutrients to all cells, but the brain is an organ in particular need. The brain requires nearly 25% of the body’s blood supply to function normally. When a disease impairs the blood’s ability to deliver oxygen, the body begins to prioritize which organs receive the remaining healthy cells. As a disease progresses, the brain is often the last major organ other than the heart to feel the effects of impaired blood cells.
Even a human death caused by sudden trauma is ultimately a case of cerebral hypoxia. Blood loss from a bullet or knife wound reduces the amount of oxygen reaching the brain. If this right balance is not restored, the heart and lungs may fail and the brain will literally begin to suffocate. After several minutes of total oxygen deprivation, the brain may not be able to recover any significant function. Then the autonomic system that controls the heart and lungs fails, leading to the ultimate cause of all human deaths: oxygen deprivation of brain cells.
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