What exactly is “brain dead” - medically speaking?

[Anonymous]

I'm guessing the people who make all the claims about brain death being over diagnosed and organ harvesting being a for profit thing have never actually gone through the process of having to determine if someone is brain dead or not. I have. It's long and awful and I wouldn't want anyone to have to go through it. If anyone thinks its just a quick "oh they are on life support, they are brain dead, we want their organs" you are wrong. What was worse for us, by the time we got to the point of brain death, many of his organs weren't viable. It felt so pointless. Not only was our loved one dead, but not as many people would benefit from his death as we had hoped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing the people who make all the claims about brain death being over diagnosed and organ harvesting being a for profit thing have never actually gone through the process of having to determine if someone is brain dead or not. I have. It's long and awful and I wouldn't want anyone to have to go through it. If anyone thinks its just a quick "oh they are on life support, they are brain dead, we want their organs" you are wrong. What was worse for us, by the time we got to the point of brain death, many of his organs weren't viable. It felt so pointless. Not only was our loved one dead, but not as many people would benefit from his death as we had hoped.

I’m sorry for what you went through. My step-dad went through something similar. Had a massive heart attack and was without oxygen for a considerable amount of time but the hospital was able to put him on a ventilator. There was no brain activity.

I think it’s just one person on this thread trolling. My dad worked in the ER for 25 years and a person’s organ donation status was not a thing.

[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?

Nobody is declared brain dead instantly. I'm pretty sure multiple doctors have to examine the patient and the EEGs (brain wave scans) and they all have to sign that the patient is brain dead and will never return to consciousness. If the patient is breathing without a ventilator, they are not brain dead but they might be in a vegetative state which may or may not be permanent.

Thing is, you aren’t God, so you don’t know what’s permanent and what isn’t. That’s the problem with the industry, they believe they’re gods.

The wise wife of a cardiologist taught me that. She said she spent too much time with physicians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Nobody is declared brain dead instantly. I'm pretty sure multiple doctors have to examine the patient and the EEGs (brain wave scans) and they all have to sign that the patient is brain dead and will never return to consciousness. If the patient is breathing without a ventilator, they are not brain dead but they might be in a vegetative state which may or may not be permanent.

Thing is, you aren’t God, so you don’t know what’s permanent and what isn’t. That’s the problem with the industry, they believe they’re gods.

The wise wife of a cardiologist taught me that. She said she spent too much time with physicians.

With that logic no body should be declared dead.

[Anonymous]

They can’t use the organs of a cadaver. That’s why they need you still alive when they cut you open. It’s painless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Can you be brain dead and still have a heartbeat?

[Anonymous]

Your other organs can be working but your brain is not. If there’s no perfusion in the brain, it cannot work and there will be no brain activity. Particularly if the patient is on life support, the heart and lungs can be working (mechanically ) but the brain is not.

Brain death is clinically significant to determine whether or not to remove life support. Brain death without life support is usually connected to death and there may only be a few moments between the two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Can you be brain dead and still have a heartbeat?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Can you be brain dead and still have a heartbeat?

Yes

If you’re not hooked up to anything, and you have a heartbeat, let’s hope they aren’t going to take you for brain dead.

[Anonymous]

The brain stem can still be functioning if the rest of the brain is gone and you can still breathe, but there's no chance of recovery. It took my grandmother a day to finally die after they took her off the ventilator following her stroke but her brain scan showed she was gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Can you be brain dead and still have a heartbeat?

Yes

If you’re not hooked up to anything, and you have a heartbeat, let’s hope they aren’t going to take you for brain dead.

No one will regain consciousness after brain death. The heart may beat for a short period after brain death but without life support the lungs and heart will stop functioning shortly after.

Once the brain stops getting oxygen for a period of minutes there’s no turning back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The brain stem can still be functioning if the rest of the brain is gone and you can still breathe, but there's no chance of recovery. It took my grandmother a day to finally die after they took her off the ventilator following her stroke but her brain scan showed she was gone.

That’s not actually brain dead. Brain stem, which controls breathing, has to cease function too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The brain stem can still be functioning if the rest of the brain is gone and you can still breathe, but there's no chance of recovery. It took my grandmother a day to finally die after they took her off the ventilator following her stroke but her brain scan showed she was gone.

That’s not actually brain dead. Brain stem, which controls breathing, has to cease function too.

I believe a person who is breathing on their own, but is not expected to regain any sort of consciousness, is considered to be in a persistent vegetative state. This is more complicated since the only "life support" is fluids and nutrition. There are a LOT of stories and court cases concerning how to manage the care of someone in a persistent vegetative state. In some cases, the nutrition is stopped causing death after a few days, in other cases, the person hangs on for years. There are some outlying stories about people who unexpectedly "wake up" after being in a vegetative state for extended periods but the definition of "waking up" is vague. It can be very difficult to identify how much consciousness a person with severe brain damage has.

[Anonymous]

Why does this old thread keep emerging from its coma?

[Anonymous]

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

Thank you!
-OP

Brain dead refers to someone being kept alive by machines. The definition of “regular dead” means they are not breathing and their heart is not beating.