Writer Dale Eldon often poses medical questions to me but
one question that seemed pertinent for his writing vice was whether or not
zombies are a real-life medical possibility. The truth, even for the fiction
writer, has to be grounded in realism for the reader to buy in. You either have
to work from reality or create a believable story world from scratch.
Here's a post I did for him on The Walking Dead.
So, are there real life examples of something dead
coming back to life? In fact, there are. There are three aspects to consider.
One: Let’s examine
the compliant aspect
of being a zombie. Is it possible to create a wholly compliant individual?
Someone without individual will power?
The
answer seems to be yes.
Image: Wikipedia |
Let’s consider TTX, the neurotoxin found in
the blue-ringed Octopus. If this toxin is absorbed through the skin, it’s akin
to having a frontal lobotomy and may lead to a compliant individual. Your
personal zombie minion. You can find out more about TTX at the Writer’s
Forensic Blog hosted by D.P. Lyle: http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/q-and-a-what-are-the-toxic-effects-of-a-poisonous-octopus-bite/.
Two: Someone that
is alive is actually declared dead.
One truly frightening aspect is that sometimes lay
people and even medical professionals aren’t all that great at determining whether
or not a person has a pulse. This influenced changes to how the American Heart
Association teaches CPR. Now, it’s encouraged to not spend more than 10 seconds
trying to figure out whether or not a person has a pulse. If they’re not
responding to you and you can’t find one—just start CPR. If they are conscious,
they’ll let you know. If not, they likely need CPR anyway.
We’ve all heard the legends of corpses being found
with nail marks in the lid. Well, how about the story from 2011 of a South African
man who was presumed dead and brought to the morgue by his family and placed in
the freezer-- only to wake up about a day later amongst the truly dead and
decomposing. You can find that story here: http://abcnews.go.com/International/south-african-dead-man-wakes-screaming-day-morgue/story?id=14154534.
Three: Are there
real-life examples of things that are truly dead—no pulse, no breathing, no
brain activity—yet, come back to life. Let’s take the case of the wolf spider. A French researcher, Julien Petillon, decided to find out and submerged them in water for several hours—like 16. Now dead, they did come back to life. Check out more on this story and what he says about the 16 hour time frame and its significance at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30348224/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/drowned-spiders-come-back-dead/.
Image: Wikipedia |
So
yes, I would say there are examples of zombie behavior in our world. The
compliant individual, those presumed dead but still alive, and those that have
died yet are reanimated.
What
zombie-like plot can you come up with based on these real-life examples?
Some things in life are far scarier than reality! That's for sure.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, Jordyn! This is amazing. Actually, GOD is amazing!
ReplyDeleteWolf spiders zombies. Who knew?
The whole presumed dead thing is terrifying - I couldn't go read the story. Too many creepy movies in high school about stuff like this. Yikes.
Great Halloween post!
Happy Halloween!
Dale, so true my friend. Loved your post today and congrats on Trixie! Can't wait to read your Novella when you release it.
ReplyDeleteBecky, Zombie wolf spiders! You crack me up. Yes, what God created is truly amazing for sure.