[Criteria of death and time of death--do Norwegian physicians follow laws and regulations?].

In Norway, death is defined as total and irreversible damage of the whole central nervous system. This means that the time of death is some minutes after circulatory arrest. The time lapse may vary from about five minutes up to 45 minutes, depending on the temperature in the brain when the circulation ceased. Five cases of spontaneous circulation after cessation of resuscitation are described. All the patients had asystoly, diagnosed on ECG by anaesthesiologists. The resuscitation had lasted for 30 minutes when the crew of the ambulance, which included a doctor, gave up. Two of the patients left the hospital alive, three died after some hours. One of the patients had no cerebral sequelae, the other developed dementia. Circulation may also start spontaneously after the doctor has diagnosed circulatory arrest in patients suffering from suffocation and exsanguination.