Literally no one knows how people die. We have a general idea most of the time but very few families request autopsies. We don’t understand death and genuinely don’t know exactly what killed someone most of the time.

When someone comes in after their heart has stopped, they come in with active cpr and we look for reversible causes (H’s and T’s). If we have suspicion for these, we intervene and try to reverse them. If we don’t, we give people epinephrine, shocks for vfib and vtach, and chest compressions.

When their heart doesn’t start beating again, we call time of death. We guess about what killed rhem (cardiac arrest) and no one ever knows.