Yeah, Marvel, like AVEIT said I don't think his chest was like completely torn to shreds or anything. Bullets obviously got through the vest, it was obviously more than just the arm. From memory doesn't Boddicker finish him off with one to the head too? But he still seemed "in once piece" as such, arm aside. His heart must have still been working at least partially by the time he got to hospital, even if he was a total vegetable in a neurological sense.
About the death thing, guess I always just assumed he's like...braindead but heart's still faintly beating kind of thing. Aren't there a couple of different ways doctors determine the legal-death thing? And clearly the hospital's trying to save him before OCP gets him, so he's not just totally done-for before they even got him in an ambulance.
Still sort of figure there has to be some "original" Murphy in there brain-function wise (as opposed to a "mind upload" into digital form like, say, Zola in The Winter Soldier), and wouldn't you need a heartbeat and certain amount of human blood flowing around to sustain that? Guess theoretically the baby food could just be supporting a brain/facial muscles and that alone, but it never came off that way to me. More like the food is supporting some remnants of organ systems and nerves and stuff. Always liked that "Frankenstein" element to the character, where he's...sure, more than 50% mechanical of course, but it seems like inside that chest cavity there's probably some messed-up organ activity of some kind going on. Just buried beneath layers of metal and pistons/gear-work and armor.
EDIT: Actually, just googled the reboot out of curiosity. There's a little rudimentary chest stuff left there too, misremembered the scene. Not that that confirms one way or another for the '87 film, but you'd figure it stands to reason it's the same idea. Neumeier & Miner were involved in writing the '14 flick too, though I don't know if other writers took a pass at it afterward.
Of course there's some original Alex Murphy in there. It's a "ghost in the machine" story, the soul/mind/whatever you want to call it surviving all that trauma. He's intended to be an obedient digital machine, product, a friggin' appliance, only he's not because feelings well up to the surface.
