clinical death

clinical death (countable and uncountable, plural clinical deaths)

1. (medicine, law) A state in which usual medically observable vital signs—such as respiration, heartbeat, and corneal reflex—are not present, but from which patients are sometimes revived.
   • 1988, Andrea K. Scott, "Death Unto Life: Anencephalic Infants as Organ Donors," Virginia Law Review, vol. 74, no. 8, p. 1533,

     The body dies in stages, beginning at clinical death, then brain death, biological death, and finally, cellular death.

• clinically dead

• brain death

• "clinical death" at OneLook® Dictionary Search.