Lazarus Phenomenon in Medicolegal Perspective: A Case Report
Abstract
Auto-resuscitation or with the common name Lazarus phenomenon is unassisted return of spontaneous circulation after cardiac arrest. Lazarus phenomenon takes a little place in the medical literature. Doctors are reluctant to publish case reports because of apprehension of being sued due to medical malpractice. In the other hand Lazarus phenomenon is a rare and interesting topic for public media. In the forensic point of view, it’s important that if a Lazarus phenomenon is connected with medical negligence or not. All “Lasarus” case reports in the literature are informing that a time interval between declaration of death and noticing spontaneous circulation-inhalation from a few second to 33 minutes. Possibly there are no other example of 3 hours time interval between death declaration and noticing auto-resuscitation rather than in our case report.
Downloads
References
Sasson C, Hegg AJ, Macy M, Park A, Kellerman A, Mc Nally B. Prehospital termination of resuscititation in cases of refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. JAMA 2008:300;1432-1438
Adhiyaman V, Adhiyaman S, Sundaram R. The Lazarus phenomenon. JR Soc Med 2007:100;552-557.
Linko K, Honkavaara P, Salmenpera M. Recovary after discontinued cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Lancet 1982:1; 106-107
Hornby K, Hornby L, Shemie SD. A systematic review of auto-resuscitation after cardiac arrest. Critical Care Medicine 2010:38;1246-1253.
Cummings BM, Noviski M. Autoresuscitation in a child: The Young Lazarus. Resuscitation 2011:82;134
Adanalı M, Güvenç TS, Kale MY, Onaç S, Hüsenyinoğlu Ü, Karabağ Y, et al. Lazarus Phenomenon in a patient with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and dilated cardiomyopathy. Acute Med 2014; 4: 99–102.
Lazarus phenomenon and clinical practice guidelines for death diagnosis: regaining public trust in medical practice.Rady MY, Verheijde JLResuscitation. 2014 Apr; 85(4).
Braun P, Herff H, Paal P. The Lazarus Phenomenon-false positive death certifications and autoresuscitation cases covered in lay press. Resuscitation 2011:82;1363-1364.
Lazarus phenomenon: knowledge, attitude and practice.Gerard D, Vaux J, Boche T, Chollet-Xemard C, Marty JResuscitation. 2013 Dec; 84(12)
Krarup NH, Kaltolf A. Risen from the dead: A case of the Lazarus phenomenon-With considerations on the termination of treatment following cardiac in a prehospital setting. Resuscititation 2010: 81; 1598-1599.
Kamarainen A, Virkkunen I, Holopainen L, Erkkila EP, Yli-Hankola A, Tenhunen J. Spontaneous defibrillation after cessation of resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A case of Lazarus phenomenon. Resuscitation 2007:75;543-546
Maeda H, Fujita MQ, Zhu BL, Yukioka H, Shindo M, Quan L, Ishida K. Death following spontaneous recovery from cardiopulmonary arrest in a hospital mortuary: Lazarus phenomenon in a case of alleged medical negligence. Forensic Science International 2002:127;82-87.
Ben-David B, Stonebreaker VC, Hershman R, Wlliams HK. Survival after failed intra-operative resuscitation: A case of Lazarus Syndrome. Anesth Analg 2001:92;690-692.
5237 sayılı Türk Ceza Kanunu madde 89.
Copyright (c) 2017 Aykut Taner Güven, Gavril Petridis, Şeyda Şebnem Özkal, Ersi Abacı Kalfoglu
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The Bulletin of Legal Medicine is an open access scientific journal. Open access means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The Journal and content of this website is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) License. This is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition of open access.
The Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) allows users to copy, distribute and transmit an article, adapt the article and make commercial use of the article. The CC BY license permits commercial and non-commercial re-use of an open access article, as long as the author is properly attributed.
The Bulletin of Legal Medicine requires the author as the rights holder to sign and submit the journal's agreement form prior to acceptance. The authors retain copyright of their work and grant the Association for its publication. This ensures both that The Journal has the right to publish the article and that the author has confirmed various things including that it is their original work and that it is based on valid research.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
*Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
*Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
*Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
