What exactly is “brain dead” - medically speaking?

[Anonymous]

Who made up this term, and why?

[Anonymous]

In the context of medicine and law, "brain death" refers to the complete and irreversible cessation of all brain function, including the brainstem, and is considered a legal definition of death.

[Anonymous]

It means the brain is not getting blood. The organ is dead.

[Anonymous]

How is “brain dead” different from the regular “dead”, before we had this new term?

Thank you!
-OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is “brain dead” different from the regular “dead”, before we had this new term?

Thank you!
-OP

What is so offensive to you about this term?

[Anonymous]

Here OP, some light reading:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/brain-death

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here OP, some light reading:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/brain-death

Here's a good summary from the article "Brain death is different from the way we usually die. For most of us, death is when our physical body stops working. We stop breathing, our hearts stop beating and we cross a line between life and death. Modern intensive medical care blurs that line. Now, treatments like ventilators can temporarily maintain breathing and heartbeat so healthcare providers can diagnose and treat an issue. As a result, it can be hard to accept that someone who appears to be breathing and has a heartbeat is, in fact, dead. Providers who diagnose brain death understand that. They’ll always take time to explain the careful steps they take before concluding someone is brain dead."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is “brain dead” different from the regular “dead”, before we had this new term?

Thank you!
-OP

You can write your paper with AI even if your teacher said not to; just insert mistakes as camouflage.

[Anonymous]

Brain dead is dead. With modern medicine someone can be on a breathing machine and their heart kept coming but if their brain function is gone they're dead.

[Anonymous]

How do you get pronounced brain dead immediately after a drug overdose or car crash, even before getting put on any medical devices?

[Anonymous]

Because you been lying there with no respiration or heartbeat for a while and yo brain done died.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because you been lying there with no respiration or heartbeat for a while and yo brain done died.

How is that different than just being dead?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you get pronounced brain dead immediately after a drug overdose or car crash, even before getting put on any medical devices?

You don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you get pronounced brain dead immediately after a drug overdose or car crash, even before getting put on any medical devices?

You don’t.

Then what does it take, if you aren’t put on a ventilator?

[Anonymous]

I had an old friend who became brain dead after a sepsis infection. They kept him on the ventilator for a couple of weeks and ran several EEGs to check for any brain activity besides the most basic autonomic functions. After two weeks of no electrical activity in the brain, he was declared permanently brain dead and his family chose to take him off life support.