Page 36 - Brain Death News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Treating, treating even though the patient is not getting better. so, we have to figure out a better way to take care of the needs of the patient which is what it comes down to at the end of the day whether they're alive or dead. >> sherrie, let me ask you this real quick. brain dead versus coma, does it make a difference in these situations? >> it does make a difference because we have these laws now, the laws actually go back historically. we didn't used to have this. it used to be that somebody's brain stopped functioning irreversibly, their heart and lungs would stop. now we have life supp...

With death, the same if your heart stops. brain death means a total loss of brain activity. now, to determine it, doctors will do several things. a physical exam, for example, shine light into the pupils and see, do they dilate, move, construct? gently rub the eyeball with cotton and see if the eye reacts that way. sometimes they'll put icewater into the ears and see if the eyes move in a particular fashion. these are all tests of the brain stem. they'll also do something known as an apnea test. they'll turn off the ventilator and see if the person shows breathing on their own. they'll do scan...

The family of a 13-year-old girl declared brain dead by several doctors has reached an agreement with the hospital to transfer her. but the details have not yet been worked out. yesterday, a california coroner issued a death certificate for jahi mcmath. the date is december 12th, three days after her tonsil surgery. dr. sanjay gupta explains brain death. >> reporter: this is an incredibly sad and heartbreaking situation, and also very confusing. let's start off by talking about some of the terms here. brain death. brain death is not the same as being in a coma or a vegetative state. brain deat...

Terms of whether that patient should or should not be removed from a ventilator and whether or not that was or was not the wishes. so, this is a specific case when it is brain death, when that is, you know, an accepted definition of death in this country. >> and it's, of course, made even worse by the fact that we're dealing with children. holly, i want to ask you this. what happened before and during and after all of these. these were surgeries, and i suppose the surgery is a separate issue. but what recourse does the family have? >> well, what you're looking at is a medical negligence case, ...

Support or something like that for family that doesn't want to do it, that can't bring themselves to do it or they're not ready for it, because really all you're going to do is cause a lot of pain for everyone involved. >> part of the confusion also seems to be, dr. mayer, because you hear these cases and we try to be very careful about this with respect to our positions in the media, but you hear about these cases where people did seemingly wake up after being in a coma, for example, for many years. and people get all these terms mixed up. >> sure. well, a coma is a severe brain injury. and t...