What happens to consciousness after you die?

If we take this in a more scientifically approach how would you explain this? I'm studying physiology at the moment and the way I see it is that consciousness only exists because all of the parts of the brain, that allow it to exist, are in working order. Remove a major element and the whole thing goes away. Think about if you ripped apart a water molecule. You know that the hydrogen molecules and oxygen combine together to make the water, but in their base forms they're purely that: base forms. However, if someone gets into a terrible accident when part of his/her brain stuff working they still have concious to some extent. Or is consciousness a complex manifestation of electrical activity in the brain that if the activity ceases, consciousness ceases?
Actually the whole definition of the word conscious is a complex concept that is hard for people to wrap their brains around. That's why it's best not to worry too much about it because you'll probably get a brain aneurysm from thinking to deeply, lol.