A woman waking up at the morgue, Pronounced dead but still alive

For many, this would be a total nightmare: waking up at the morgue. For some people, this or being pronounced dead although they’re still alive is a frightening reality…

• June Burchell from Sussex has a medical condition called “Cataplexy”. Because of her cataplexy, she was pronounced dead 3 times and ended up at the morgue 2 of those, although she was still alive.
• On the occasions June was pronounced dead, her blood pressure was very low and her breathing slower than usual, making it harder to tell if she was alive.
• Cataplexy is a condition where the person who has it is paralyzed and can’t move and show small or none vital signs for a period of time. The person is still however fully aware and can see and hear everything around them, but they can’t respond to the activities.

The human brain's hypothalamus

• A person with cataplexy can be in the paralysis for minutes to even days.
• Cataplexy is found to often be triggered by spontaneous, strong emotions such as fear and laughter.
• Cataplexy often affects people who have narcolepsy, a disorder where the person fall in and out of sleep when not stimulated.
• Scientists found in the brains of dogs with cataplexy that they had a missing chemical called Hypocretin which they suspected was the cause of the condition.
• Scientists then performed research on donated human brains from people with our without narcolepsy and found that the Hypocretin was destroyed in the brains from people with narcolepsy.
• Hypocretin is normally produced in the brain’s Hypothalamus: the brain’s control center. Hypocretin controls our transition from being asleep to being awake. It also is believed to maintain motor-activity during certain emotions.
• A cure for cataplexy may be found in 5 years