It's a sad day when the world's doctors need help distinguishing the dead from the undead. From the BBC:
Doctors are being given tips to help them diagnose when someone is dead.
Although a patient coming back from the dead is rare, there is enough ambiguity in diagnosing death that doctors need guidance, experts have decided.
Rapid advances in life support, where machines take over the breathing of the moribund, have complicated the diagnosis, for example.
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges' UK guidelines cover situations like hypothermia and drug-induced coma.
Back from the dead
There have been instances when people exposed to extreme cold have been presumed dead but have later shown signs of life again when their core body temperature has risen again.
Sedative drugs can also make a person appear to be dead when they are not.
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