I am not a medic but charity work that I do in my spare time (for over 10 years) involves bereavement.
I asked a doctor friend of mine what happened when the "Is there a Doctor on the flight/in the house?" call arrived. He said that he always responded but knew of some Doctors who did not because they were i) on holiday ii) concerned about litigation. Takes all sorts.
He agrees that CPR has a finite time, not least because it is often (not always) apparent when death has occurred. In hospitals, he said that the medics often realise that death has occurred but keep going 'just in case' or until more time has passed as they do not want to stop too soon. Certainly, after 30 mins of respiratory faliure, serious brain damage will have occurred (if not terminal) but your operating instructions are your instructions.
If the pax has a fellow traveller, then it may well be easier to stop CPR because, as I said, they will see for themselves that nature has taken it's course. The change in skin colour is very rapid, without the heart doing it's stuff, the blood drains to the lower side of the body and the upper becomes very pale.
A man said to me recently, "I knew she [his wife] was gone. [He was instructed by the Emergency Service] I kept working until the ambulance arrived and then I watched them and knew that there was no point."
From a pax point of view, I would agree that the 'prop them up in a window seat with blanket and oxygen mask' makes very good sense. I would add that you should try to place plastic underneath them. A carrier bag will do as, if there is some time to go to destination, this will protect the seat cushion. Sorry if that is more information than you needed.
On the point of the eyes, bear in mind that they may not stay closed. Placing eye snooze-shades would work here. Also, the mouth will sag open within minutes of death, this is why the oxygen mask is such a good idea as it will disguise this. People in movies and TV dramas are usually considerate enough to keep their mouth shut after they die, which leads to this popular misunderstanding.
The question about rigor mortis, I think that this is less crucial. Although the average time is usually given as 4~6 hours, it varies with each corpse and can take up to eight hours to start, or begin very quickly.
Should it have set in, then the seats in front would be folded down and arm rests swung out of the way. Ground medical staff would then lift the body into one of those narrow aisle wheel-chairs.
Let's hope that it doesn't happen to any of us but dead bodies are less frightning than many folks think. Principally because it is obvious that the person is - simply - dead. The bodies that you do not want to see are the ones from the battlefield.
Safe Journey.
[ 16 October 2001: Message edited by: PAXboy ]