Brain death

This refers to the article ‘Brain death and our transplantlaw’ by Sunil K Pandya (1) in which Dr Pandya concludes by saying we need a separate law which defines brain death clearly, and this definition must supersede the older definition of cardiopulmonary death.

The problem with brain death is that the patient is still hooked to a life support system and the heart continues to beat. Doctors are unwilling to describe such patients as dead and use the word ‘dead’ synonymously with brain stem death. Vague terms such as ‘deeply unconscious’ are preferred. In my experience brain death is not clear even in the minds of doctors. Such patients lie for weeks and months in the ICU and even doctors are not willing to certify them as dead. Hope springs eternal in the human heart and relatives who have heard stories, seen movies, are gullible and believe that one day the patient will open his eyes and start talking to them. People believe a miracle will happen. No doctor is willing to counter this thinking.

The law on transplant is not so bad and many people are also willing to donate organs but the medical profession must be re-educated and urged to declare a brain dead person as dead. Further, they should tell the patient that the life support machine will only be kept on if they want to donate organs. Let us hope that this happens soon.