For millennia, when people stopped breathing, they stopped living. The classic test for determining whether people were asleep or dead was whether they could fog a mirror.

In the eighteenth century, the citizens of Amsterdam became alarmed at the number of residents perishing by drowning in the canals. They started a Society for the Favor of Drowned Persons that experimented with some interesting techniques to try to revive the drowned.

David Casarett, MD, reviews the history of resuscitation medicine with us. He then brings us up to date on current advances in rescuing people who have suffered heart attacks or other potentially lethal catastrophes as well as drowning. What questions should we ask as science makes it increasingly possible to revive the recently dead? Is that always desirable?

David Casarett, MD, MA, is a palliative care physician and health services researcher whose work focuses on improving systems of care for people with serious, life-threatening illnesses. He recently relocated from the University of Pennsylvania where he was a tenured professor of medicine. Dr. Casarett is now Chief of Palliative Care at the Duke University School of Medicine. He received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. This is the highest honor the US government gives to researchers in the early stages of their careers.

Dr. Casarett has also written three non-fiction books, including Shocked: Adventures in Bringing Back the Recently Dead (2014). His first novel in the Ethical Chiang Mai Detective Agency series, Murder at the House of Rooster Happiness, will be published in September 2016.

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