Death, Defined

Death is a black camel, which kneels at the gates of all —Abd-el-Kader
Death is like a fisherman who catches fish in his net and leaves them for a while in the water; the fish is still swimming but the net is around him, and the fisherman will draw him up when he thinks fit —Ivan Turgenev
Death is like thunder in two particulars: we are alarmed at the sound of it and it is formidable only from that which preceded it —Charles Caleb Colton
Death is simply a shedding of the physical body, like the butterfly coming out of a cocoon —Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross
Death, like an overflowing stream, sweeps us away —Abraham Lincoln
Death, like birth, is a secret of nature —Marcus Aurelius
Death, like life, is an affair of being more frightened than hurt —Samuel Butler
Dying is an art, like everything else —Sylvia Plath
Dying is something ghastly, as being born is something ridiculous —George Santayana
If a person has reached the “age of strength” [eighty years old] a sudden death is like dying from a kiss —Babylonian Talmud
Like the dew on the mountain, like the foam on the river, like the bubble on the fountain, you are gone, and for ever —Sir Walter Scott
The above, taken from Scott’s famous The Lady of the Lake, substitutes “You are gone” for the old English “Thou art gone.”
The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch, which hurts, and is desired —William Shakespeare
’Desired’ has been modernized from ‘desir’d.’
(I) think of death as a sort of deleterious fermentation, like that which goes on in a bottle of Chateau Margaux when it becomes corked —H. L. Mencken

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References in periodicals archive

Babies born after obesity surgery were also at a 38% greater risk of perinatal death, defined as being stillborn or dying within 7 days of birth.

Women who have undergone weight-loss surgery at greater risk birth complications: Study

An important aim of the training was to help doctors focus on the underlying cause of death, defined by the WHO as: (i) the disease or injury that initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death; or (ii) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury.

Medical certification of death in South Africa--moving forward

High troponin levels were associated with a 5-fold increased risk of short-term death, defined as in-hospital death up to 30 days after discharge (19.7% with elevated troponin vs 3.7% with normal troponin; odds ratio [OR]=5.24; 95% CI, 3.3-8.4).

Q/Elevated troponin but no CVD: what's the prognosis?

Among the more than 478,000 people who met these criteria, 926 experienced sudden death, defined as a natural death heralded by a sudden loss of con sciousness within 1 hour after the onset of acute symptoms, or an unwitnessed, unexpected death of someone seen in stable medical condition less than 24 hours before with no evidence of a noncardiac cause.

Anticonvulsant use elevated in sudden death cases

Among the more than 478,000 people who met these criteria, 926 experienced sudden death, defined as a natural death heralded by a sudden loss of consciousness within 1 hour after the onset of acute symptoms, or an unwitnessed, unexpected death of someone seen in stable medical condition less than 24 hours before, with no evidence of a noncardiac cause.

Anticonvulsant drug use elevated in sudden death cases

They offer an alternative account that would allow physicians to remove transplantable organs from patients who have suffered an irreversible coma but fail to meet the criteria for brain death, defined as "the irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain." The new justification is necessary, they assert, because the so-called brain dead are "not really dead," and the fiction of brain death offers "only a veneer of protection." Miller and Truog view it as protection to safeguard severely compromised patients from serving as a source of organs for other patients.

Putting death in context

Using state health department records, researchers examined the occurrence of fetal death, defined as pregnancy loss after 20 weeks' gestation, against the straight-line distance between a mother's home and the nearest hazardous waste site.

Toxic neighbors? Fetal death risk near hazardous waste sites

Editorial Note: Death rates are usually based on the underlying cause of death, defined by the ICD-9 as "(as) the disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death, or (b) the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury" [2].

Mortality patterns - United States, 1987