Full cardiac arrest, unconscious but not dead when found?

How can they pronounce Heath Ledger dead at his apartment? They're reporting that he was found unconscious. I thought EMTs usually take people to the hospital and that's where they are pronounced dead. I knew someone who died suddenly but they still rushed him to the hospital even thought he wasn't breathing, no pulse, etc. And didn't they take Anna Nicole Smith to the hospital even though she was already blue? This is confusing.

Brain death begins 4-6 minutes after the pulse and respirations cease. If they found him and he had obvious signs of being down for an extended period of time no amount of advanced cardiac life support would bring him back. Some of these signs include pooling of the blood, (Levitity), rigor mortis setting in,(This can start within 1 hour) and other signs of extended down time. The paramedics in the field can recognize these things and make the determination as to whether or not a life is viable.

Just because someone's blue doesn't mean they're not viable. The reports don't elaborate as to the exact signs the medics saw when they arrived. Trust me on this, if paramedics think there's even a slight chance of saving somene they'll do it. Mr. Ledger must have been obviously beyond the ability of the emergency personnel to have made a difference.

That is the media for ya.

A comet could hit and the story would be a guy farted in Toronto.

If he'd been dead for a while, this would be clear to the paramedics. We don't know yet how long he'd been there, but I'm sure his body was at least cold by then.