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Comment by rippercushions | Hacker News Reader

Is "cardiac arrest" in Korea code for "dead", the way it is in Japan? There people can only legally be declared dead at hospitals, so people are reported to be "in cardiac arrest" even if they've been (say) decapitated.

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I am Korean and we are getting "dead confirmed" number separately now, reported by hospitals. So yes, "cardiac arrest" is reported from the accident site and it is unlikely that they are going to survive.

I wonder how it is different in other countries.

In the US journalists will often use the term 'unresponsive' in similar situations.

Swedish media usually say "seriously injured" until police or hospitals confirm.

Thinking about it, we also say “injured or dead" (사상자) when it's about the number.

that's not uncommon in the USA either when news is still incoming from an ongoing emergency situation with incomplete information available.

I guess “stopped heart” is technically correct. Odd that there’s an overlap where in North America we normally think of it as meaning heart attack.

Huh that’s fascinating. In Canada there’s a small list of cases where paramedics can declare someone dead. Decapitation is one of them.

In Austria we call it "conditions incompatible with life".

In CA (and probably elsewhere) the list usually also contains incineration, decomposition, rigor mortis, and livor mortis. And depending on the county the list can also include other signs that are a bit more nuanced. Such as apneic + pulseless + DNR. Or submerged for over an hour.

Aka "rapid unscheduled disassembly"

I don't think I've seen "cardiac arrest" used like this in Korean news until recently. Might be a recent shift by journalists.

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