A friend of mine arrested on 1st January. Her husband phoned 000, and did CPR till the ambulance came ( about 15 mins ). 24 hours later, tests showed that her brain functions were totally disrupted, with major cerebral swelling. She finally died some 50 hours after arresting, when the swelling put too much pressure on the brainstem. That 2.3 days figure is about right. Yes, I was there at the time she died - I'd been their best man two years previously, they were both really good friends. Had the ambulance not transported (They had to re-start her twice on the way to the hospital), then we, her friends and family, would have felt that more could have been done. As it is, everyone did everything they could, it was just one of those truly shitty situations (pardon my French). The autopsy and months of forensic tests still showed no obvious cause - her heart just stopped for no apparent reason. What made it worse was that her husband some 15 years ago was going to be married to someone else. But his fiance had a cerebral haemorrage at breakfast, and took a few days of coma before dying. See previous remark about truly shitty situations.