It sounds like a horror movie — but it’s real. In this Fright Facts Week episode, Gordy unpacks the eerie medical mystery known as Lazarus Syndrome, when patients declared clinically dead suddenly start breathing again — sometimes minutes after life support has been stopped.
From a 1982 Lancet case report to the astonishing real-life story of Velma Thomas, whose heart restarted nearly an hour after death, this episode explores the rare condition that blurs the line between life and death. Gordy dives into theories from modern medicine — like delayed drug effects, trapped air in the lungs (auto-PEEP), and spontaneous return of circulation — to reveal how the body can sometimes reboot itself in ways science is still trying to understand.
It’s one of the strangest phenomena ever recorded in emergency medicine — and a reminder that even death, sometimes, takes its time.
Watch until the end for the unbelievable real cases that made doctors rethink what “time of death” really means.
#LazarusSyndrome #MedicalMystery #Resurrection #DailyFacts #ScienceFacts #WeirdScience #medicalmarvel #medicine #spookyfacts #CPR Music thanks to Zapsplat.
Sources:
Linko, J. G., Honkavaara, P., & Salmenpera, M. (1982). Recovery after discontinued cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The Lancet, 319(8270), 106–107.
Adhiyaman, V., Adhiyaman, S., & Sundaram, R. (2007). The Lazarus phenomenon. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 100(12), 552–557.
Bray, J. E., Deasy, C., Smith, K., Bernard, S., & Finn, J. (2010). The Lazarus phenomenon: Return of spontaneous circulation after cessation of resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Resuscitation, 81(7), 830–833.
Hornby, K., Dhanani, S., & Shemie, S. D. (2010). A systematic review of autoresuscitation after cardiac arrest. Critical Care Medicine, 38(5), 1246–1253.
NEJM Journal Watch. (2014). Lazarus phenomenon following prolonged resuscitation.
CNN (2014). Woman declared dead, wakes up after 45 minutes.
BBC News (2020). US woman found alive in body bag at funeral home.
Resuscitation Council UK (2021). Guidelines for termination of resuscitation efforts.