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.
But without brain function, the body eventually shuts down, unless there is medical intervention. Someone on a ventilator may appear to be breathing, but cannot breathe on their own. While the heart usually stops within 72 hours, it could continue beating for “a week or so,” Varelas said.
The heart contains pacemaker cells that will cause it to continue beating even when a patient is brain-dead. Other organs in the body do not have this capability and need the brain to be functioning to send signals to the organs to carry out their functions.
Brain death is a clinical and legal definition of death. 1 Sometimes, when a person is declared brain dead, their heart may still be still beating and their chest may rise and fall with every breath from the ventilator. The skin might be warm and a person who is brain dead may appear to be resting.
When someone is 'brain dead' they have no reflexes and cannot breathe on their own. They will never regain consciousness or the ability to breathe and are considered legally dead. Usually when someone loses brain stem function they stop breathing, their heart stops and they are clearly dead.
Variability in the diagnosis of brain death has the potential to lead to misdiagnosis. Even in the clearest circumstances, families may have difficulty accepting a diagnosis of brain death when they see their loved one's heart still beating and feel their body warm to the touch.
If the clinical situation and the tests have led to the determination of brain death, then this means the patient cannot recover; brain death is death, which is irreversible. Keeping a body on a ventilator after brain death has been declared properly will never result in recovery.
By wakefulness, I mean that patients in a vegetative state have sleep/wake cycles. At the times when they seem to be awake, their eyes open and sometimes wander. At other times they keep their eyes shut and appear to be asleep, although they may open them and stir when touched or spoken to.
After turning off life support, a person who's brain-dead will die within minutes, because they won't be able to breathe on their own. If a person is in a permanent vegetative state but not brain-dead, their life support likely consists of fluids and nutrition.
They might close their eyes frequently or they might be half-open. Facial muscles may relax and the jaw can drop. Skin can become very pale. Breathing can alternate between loud rasping breaths and quiet breathing.
The heart does not need a brain, or a body for that matter, to keep beating. The heart has its own electrical system that causes it to beat and pump blood. Because of this, the heart can continue to beat for a short time after brain death, or after being removed from the body.
Your heart no longer beats, your breath stops and your brain stops functioning. Studies suggest that brain activity may continue several minutes after a person has been declared dead. Still, brain activity isn't the same as consciousness or awareness. It doesn't mean that a person is aware that they've died.
"Pulling the plug" would render the patient unable to breathe, and the heart would stop beating within minutes, he said. But if a patient is not brain dead and instead has suffered a catastrophic neurological brain injury, DiGeorgia said, he or she could breathe spontaneously for one or two days before dying.
They do hear you, so speak clearly and lovingly to your loved one. Patients from Critical Care Units frequently report clearly remembering hearing loved one's talking to them during their hospitalization in the Critical Care Unit while on "life support" or ventilators.
Many brain-dead patients have spontaneous movements such as jerking of fingers or bending of toes that can be disturbing to family members and health care professionals and even cause them to question the brain-death diagnosis.
If after 10 minutes no breathing is witnessed and the blood carbon dioxide level increases by 20 millimeters of mercury or more, the patient meets criteria for brain death.
The diagnosis of brain death is primarily clinical. No other tests are required if the full clinical examination, including an assessment of brain stem reflexes and an apnea test, is conclusively performed.
Brain death can be assessed by physical examination, the apnea test, and ancillary tests. The physical examination includes the response to pain and assessment of brain stem reflexes. Loss of response to central pain occurs in brain death.
Within a few minutes, their brain stops functioning entirely and their skin starts to cool. At this point, they have died. The signs that someone has died are: there is no breathing or heartbeat.
Within one hour: Primary flaccidity (relaxation of muscles) will occur almost immediately followed by pallor mortis (paling of the skin). At two to six hours: Rigor mortis (stiffening of muscles) will begin. At seven to 12 hours: Rigor mortis is complete.
One of the wildest innovations is “living funerals.” You can attend a dry run of your own funeral, complete with casket, mourners, funeral procession, etc. You can witness the lavish proceedings without having an “out-of-body” experience, just an “out-of-disposable-income” experience.
Well, technically speaking, your body can still be alive without a brain. On the other hand, it's pretty difficult for your body to be alive without a heart. In either circumstance, the quality of life is pretty poor without one or the other!
Without a question, the brain is the most important organ in the body. The brain houses the intellect, emotions, personality, and consciousness. It controls and coordinates all of the body's other organs, including the heart. Brain failure symptoms include dementia and coma.
In particular, the temporal lobe (at the temples) is sensitive to oxygen deficiency which is also where the memory is situated. A lack of oxygen from three to nine minutes can result in irreversible brain damage!