Brain death is legal death It can be confusing to be told someone has brain death, because their life support machine will keep their heart beating and their chest will still rise and fall with every breath from the ventilator. But they will not ever regain consciousness or start breathing on their own again.
The body of a brain-dead person is usually not supported for very long, Greene-Chandos said. Doctors sometimes provide support (in the form of a ventilator, hormones, fluids, etc.) for several days if the organs will be used for donation, or if the family needs more time to say good-bye, Greene-Chandos said.
Brain death, by contrast, is final. Medical technology can keep brain-dead individuals on life support. At the same time, those in a persistent vegetative state (or "chronic wakefulness without awareness") may die naturally if this is in their living will.
The heart continues to beat while the ventilator delivers oxygen to the lungs (the heart can initiate its own beating without nerve impulses from the brain) but, despite the beating heart and warm skin, the person is dead. Since the brain has stopped working, the person won't breathe if the ventilator is switched off.
At the time a physician declares brain death, the patient is dead. Mechanical support (a breathing machine) keeps oxygen going to the organs until they can be recovered for transplant.
The three essential findings in brain death are coma, absence of brainstem reflexes, and apnoea. An evaluation for brain death should be considered in patients who have suffered a massive, irreversible brain injury of identifiable cause. A patient determined to be brain dead is legally and clinically dead.
Artificial means can maintain breathing and keep the heart beating for a while, but once brain death occurs, nothing can keep the other organs functioning indefinitely. Doctors must use specific criteria to diagnose brain death. No treatment can help a person who is brain dead.
The first organ system to “close down” is the digestive system. Digestion is a lot of work! In the last few weeks, there is really no need to process food to build new cells. That energy needs to go elsewhere.
Recently, two cases of reversible “brain death” have been reported from academic tertiary hospitals (Joffe et al. 2009; Webb and Samuels 2011). In addition to the above-mentioned dramatic, spontaneous full recovery from “brain death,” there are also many well-documented cases of “brain-death” survivors.
The brain stem also relays information to and from the brain to the rest of the body, so it plays an important role in the brain's core functions, such as consciousness, awareness and movement. After brain death, it is not possible for someone to remain conscious.
Can someone hear while on life support? It's hard to say for sure whether people on life support can hear their loved ones and healthcare providers. Small studies suggest it's possible. This probably depends on the level of sedation and how severe any possible brain injury is.
Patients may be misdiagnosed as “brain dead” if their doctors fail to order the necessary tests to determine whether or not they are aware of their condition and unable to communicate. Individuals who have suffered severe brain injuries need to be accurately diagnosed to receive the best possible care and treatment.
Once a patient is declared brain dead, the family usually opts to remove uncomfortable tubes and machines quickly, said DiGeorgia, who has not treated Richardson. "Pulling the plug" would render the patient unable to breathe, and the heart would stop beating within minutes, he said.
Parents and doctors usually make decisions together about life support treatment. (See Shared decision-making). In most situations medical teams will make sure that parents are in agreement before a decision is made to stop life support treatment.
Permanent brain damage begins after only 4 minutes without oxygen, and death can occur as soon as 4 to 6 minutes later. Machines called automated external defibrillators (AEDs) can be found in many public places, and are available for home use.
One is when the heart and lungs have stopped working. The other is when the entire brain has stopped working. The second is known as brain death. A patient cannot recover from brain death.
Individuals may even occasionally grimace, cry, or laugh. A coma rarely lasts beyond two to four weeks.
Severe oxygen deprivation can cause life-threatening problems including coma and seizures. After 10 minutes without oxygen , brain death occurs. Brain death means there is no brain activity. A person needs life support measures like a mechanical ventilator to help them breathe and stay alive.
They Know They're Dying
Dying is a natural process that the body has to work at. Just as a woman in labor knows a baby is coming, a dying person may instinctively know death is near. Even if your loved one doesn't discuss their death, they most likely know it is coming.
This stage is also one of reflection. The dying person often thinks back over their life and revisits old memories.4 They might also be going over the things they regret.
“Our data shows that a dying brain can respond to sound, even in an unconscious state, up to the last hours of life.”
Brain stem death is when a person no longer has any brain stem functions, and has permanently lost the potential for consciousness and the capacity to breathe. When this happens, a ventilator keeps the person's heart beating and oxygen circulating through their bloodstream.
It is the complete stopping of all brain function and cannot be reversed. It means that, because of extreme and serious trauma or injury to the brain, the body's blood supply to the brain is blocked, and the brain dies. Brain death is death. It is permanent.
Contrary to previous notions that brain cells die within 5 to 10 minutes, evidence now suggests that if left alone, the cells of the brain die slowly over a period of many hours, even days after the heart stops and a person dies.