There are things that have been bothering me since my elder brothers death. According to the doctors in Malaysia, he passed away because "his heart stopped beating for 6 minutes at that time". Somehow, I still find that sentence confusing because I remember my brother's body reflexes were still moving when we spoke to him verbally, or perhaps touching his body. So how can his brain be entirely dead? Probably due to the stress from work and studies, I hardly have a good sleep every night, and even if I do, i will start having nightmares, etc. I will sometimes even sleep at my desk in the office :(

One day, a new PhD student came to me and asked me about student visa's and we spend a few hours chatting. He is an extremely nice person to me, seriously. From my observation (my observation is usually accurate, lol), he should be a very caring and concerned person. Once I am extremely busy with printing handout for students, he approached and offered me some help with stapling those printed documents.

Speaking to him for hours, or days, and I realized he is a real doctor from Beijing! Excuse me? A medical doctor studying PhD? He must be extremely smart. So i asked him some stupid questions like "How many years have you been studying to be a doctor" and he explained that it takes him more than 10 years?! He *Grins* and explained to me very slowly. Now i know he is not only a normal medical doctor. He is also a brain specialist and surgeon who had worked in a hospital in Beijing, and has operated more than 100 patients' head! By the way, he is just 31 this year.


Caption : Dr. Rui and I

I asked him many questions related to my brother, since he is a brain specialist. He told me that brain cells will start dying when a person's heart stops beating for 8 mins, and completely dead (in the central brain) in approximately 20 mins. But why my brother was pronounced as brain dead when his heart stopped beating for 6 minutes? He said "maybe your brother should go to the hospital immediately when he starts feeling unconcious". He is right. My brother started to feel unconcious for 4 hours before going to the hospital (also thanks to his gf). If he is right, my brother passed away with just 2% brain cells left in his brain. That is the part of the brain that controls the nerves and reflexes system. When brain cells are dead in the central executive (brain), it will never regenerate again. That is why some people who had serious brain injuries can only open their eyes, or perhaps just blinking their eyes for the rest of his life.


Caption: This book is interesting, entitled "The Human Brain"

Basically, I spend about 6 hours sitting in the office, listening to him about the stories of "Human brain". I am a cognitive psychologist myself and I still find the story of a person's brain very interesting. Studying neuro sciences are definitely worth it. I also asked him how the cancer disease spread in a person's body, i.e. a tumor found in a person's intestine and he really explained it very thoroughly.


Caption: (a) stomach, (b) large intestine, (c) small intestine, (d) rectum, (e) anus, (f) appendix, and (g) cecum

Let's ignore (d), (f), and (g) lol. I will make it very briefly, since i do not like to explain something for the next six hours lol. If a person is having tumor somewhere in (b), the large intestine and discovered it at the early stage, then the doctor 'should' be able to control that tumor from spreading all over your body (that is when you will die) by asking you to take some medicines or if necessary, cutting certain section (let says 5 cm) of your large intestine and combine the edge of the left over intestines. This goes the same if a tumor found in the (c) small intestine. However, if a tumor found in the (e) anus, then you will have trouble. According to Dr. Rui, if the doctor think you should cut a section in the anus and if the measurement of the anus to be removed is greater than 6 cm, then they will say 'no' to remove that tumor. They can only remove the tumor from the anus if it is lesser than 6 cm. Very risky isn't it? Sometimes the doctor will not be able to cut every section of an intestine, especially when the tumor grow somewhere between the intestine and (example) kidney. He can help you to cut your intestine that contained the tumor but not the kidney. So when you realized a tumor in your body, then you will be in great danger.