It is also under the same scenario that organ donation is presented as an option in order to give life to others. Brain death occurs when a person has an irreversible, catastrophic brain injury, which causes total cessation of all brain function the upper brain structure and brain stem. Brain death is not a coma or persistent vegetative state. Brain death is determined in the hospital by one or more physicians not associated with a transplantation team.
When someone is brain dead, it means that the brain is no longer working in any capacity and never will again. Other organs, such as the heart, kidneys or liver, can still work for a short time if the breathing machine is left in place, but when brain death is declared, it means the person has died. Death of the brain can occur from accidental injuries or illness. High blood pressure can also cause bleeding in the brain and result in death. A brain infection, a brain tumor or a traumatic injury may cause the brain to swell and lead to death as well.
Doctors examining the patient will conduct a battery of tests to determine whether any brain activity is present. If all brain activity is absent, the patient is dead. An injury must also be established, such as a blow to the head or blood loss.
Doctors then test the function of cranial nerves, including one that runs to the eye and activates blinking; another in the throat that causes gagging; and a third in the inner ear that allows the eyes to focus on an object when the head is moving.
Each of these engages the brainstem. This is the true litmus test for brain death, and it can take about 20 minutes, during which doctors must not leave the room even for a moment, said Dr. Panayiotis Varelas, director of the neuroscience intensive-care unit at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. The exact timing of these tests and the number of times they are done — some doctors perform them all once; others do so twice, separated by a number of hours — vary from hospital to hospital, surveys have found.
The panel was moderated by anesthesiologist and critical care specialist Robert Stevens , who says the line between life and death, once clearly perceptible in the form of a beating heart, is now sometimes harder to see because of advances in lifesaving technologies.
The modern intensive care unit can keep a person with severe brain injuries alive, he says, but may also mask evidence that the person has died. The shift from a deep coma to brain death—permanent cessation of all brain function—may not be immediately obvious to an untrained observer.
Yet recognizing this transition from life to death is critical for families, the medical team and potential organ recipients. When a patient dies, doctors stop treatment and instead focus on organ viability.
The body is kept on life-support machinery if the patient was a registered organ donor or while the family makes decisions about organ donation. Doctors do everything they can to stabilize the patient, but his brain may have suffered irreversible damage. When attending physicians suspect a patient is brain-dead, they may opt to call a consultant—a Johns Hopkins neurologist, neurosurgeon or critical care specialist with experience and training in two different, but related, areas: the techniques used to determine death, and communicating the nuances of the difficult situation with primary care teams and family members.
As you can imagine, then the courts got involved with much ensuing drama, counter claims, and media ink. In both of these examples the reporting produced a lot of misinformation.
This seems to be a dreadful trend. For some perspective on this issue I spoke to Dr. Susan Molchan, one of our reviewers at HealthNewsReview.
While brain death might be definitively definitive, Dr. As for the stories this study team reviewed, lead author Ariane Lewis said they varied considerably in quality, with some being well-written and others, well, not so much. Journalists need to be part of the education game, not the misinformation game, and with twenty Americans per day dying while waiting on an organ donor list, there are real lives at stake, for the thousands of Americans waiting for a lung, a heart, a liver or kidney.
Please note , comments are no longer published through this website. All previously made comments are still archived and available for viewing through select posts. Brain Death is fundamentally difficult to understand in itself for the common person. Brain dead? How could my son be brain dead?
Are you kidding me? That was so incredibly HARD. It was easy because we knew it was the right thing to do. How we got there was the hard part.
The next day, little Dylan became a superhero and saved lives through organ donation. What a bittersweet yet wonderful day that will be. We can hardly wait! Thank you. Thank you for your perspective, Dan. Our son Keith was 23 when he took a test ride out in front of our home on 3.
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