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In the U.S. medical system there is a distinction between “Brain Dead” and “Clinical Death.” Clinical death is when the heart stops beating, and brain death occurs about 4-minutes after the heart has stopped beating, but it could be as long as 6-minutes. A person is considered legally dead when their heart and brain can not function on their own without machines.
Once a person is pronounced legally dead a postmortem exam, or what is commonly called an autopsy, may be preformed. No anesthetic is given for an autopsy. The brain is sometimes removed from the head, weighed and examined. The heart or other organs may be removed and examined. The same is done for organ donation.
As a former ambulance paramedic I have seen people pronounced dead who later woke up in the morgue and was alive. Although it rarely happens. People who receive a donated organ do feel a connection with their donor. A living person who loses an arm or a leg usually feels the presence of that arm or leg long after it has been removed.
I guess it all depends on how tightly we are holding on to our physical body after the body has died. The first time I had an out-of-body experience it scared me, my ego freaked out, and I did not want to go, so I physically held on to the chair that I was sitting in to prevent myself from having that out-of-body experience.
I also immediately ate a few hamburgers which kept me in touch with my body. Later learning how incredibly beautiful the out-of-body experience is and how I had previously denied myself of that beauty. Most likely there are people who try to stay in their physical body long after it has died. A part of spiritual surrender is learning how to let go inside.
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