The Darkone

[imrathill]

he stopped breathing in Rhuidan to... that can be definated as beeing dead..

[Luckers]

RJ says its not. I rather suspect he was referring to brain death, or some other absurd technicality.

 

It always bugges me how he did that... if your gonna prophisy a character dying and coming back to life, dont have him do it twice in a short period. Tis confusing.

[RobertAlexWillis]

Mat was not dead in Rhuidean. The asphyxia caused by being hung led to generalized hypoxia, one of the symptoms of which is a coma like state. Extremely lowered heart rate, and respiration rate. Essentially, Mat went into a 5 minute coma. Its one of the body's responses to hypoxia (which is the lowering of oxygen levels in the blood and tissues, and can be caused by strangulation). If it had persisted, of course, then he would have died. Even another 2 or 3 minutes would have resulted in irreversible brain damage. But Rand cut him down, and with the physical restoration of the open airway, the body reversed the hypoxia. Rand banging on his chest didn't really do anything, even though we think of it as analogous to CPR. Breathing into his mouth helped, as did lifting his waist, by restoring the physical mechanisms of air flow.

 

Ironically, this is one case where forcing Mat's body to make the physical motions of life with the Power would have worked. Rand just didn't do it because 1) Rand has no idea what hypoxia is, and 2) he had mental issues from his attempt in the Stone.

[Luckers]

I'm surprised in that situation that Rand banging on his chest didn't stop his heart...

[RobertAlexWillis]

Unless he hit him hard enough to break his ribs, it wouldn't even affect his heart.

 

Ask anyone who has performed CPR. If you re-started their heart, you broke their ribs. The ribs function is to prevent outside pressure from affecting the heart. You can re-start, or stop it, without going through them.

[Luckers]

Beating a persons chest whose heart has not failed, but is weak, is a sure way to induce cardiac arrest.

[RobertAlexWillis]

Beating a persons chest whose heart has not failed, but is weak, is a sure way to induce cardiac arrest.

 

Huh? Why would beating their chest cause cardiac arrest? That is, beating it in a way not violent enough to break any ribs. It wouldn't affect the heart at all. Cardiac arrest is caused by blockages within the heart, or an interruption or disruption of the electric nerve impluse that regulates the heartbeat, not external pressure. The only way for blunt trauma to stop the heart is if it is severe enough to actually crush or deform the muscle, and anything that bad would certainly crush the ribcage first.