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Brain death is used as an indicator of legal death in many jurisdictions, [7] but it is defined inconsistently and often confused by the public. [8] Various parts of the brain may keep functioning when others do not anymore, and the term "brain death" has been used to refer to various combinations.
Jahi McMath was a thirteen-year-old girl who was declared brain dead in California following surgery in 2013. This led to a bioethical debate engendered by her family's rejection of the medicolegal findings of death in the case, and their efforts to maintain her body using mechanical ventilation and other measures.
The phenomenon has been observed to occur several minutes after the removal of medical ventilators used to pump air in and out of brain-dead patients. [4] It also occurs during testing for apnea—that is, suspension of external breathing and motion of the lung muscles—which is one of the criteria for determining brain death used for example by the American Academy of Neurology.
Most legal determinations of death in the developed world are made by medical professionals who pronounce death when specific criteria are met. [4] Two categories of legal death are death determined by irreversible cessation of heartbeat (cardiopulmonary death), and death determined by irreversible cessation of functions of the brain (brain death).
The Uniform Determination of Death Act has been enacted in 37 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Jurisdiction with enactment The Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) is a model state law that was approved for the United States in 1981 by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, in cooperation with the American Medical Association, the ...
The change of use, in the UK, to criteria for the diagnosis of death itself was protested immediately. [17] [18] The initial basis for the change of use was the claim that satisfaction of the criteria sufficed for the diagnosis of the death of the brain as a whole, despite the persistence of demonstrable activity in parts of the brain. [19]
Brain injury is likely if respiratory arrest goes untreated for more than three minutes, and death is almost certain if more than five minutes. Damage may be reversible if treated early enough. Respiratory arrest is a life-threatening medical emergency that requires immediate medical attention and management.
The cause of SIS is uncertain, but it is thought that the brain's arterioles lose their ability to regulate their diameter, and therefore lose control over cerebral blood flow, causing massive cerebral edema. [2] Most cases of SIS have occurred in children, who are thought to be particularly vulnerable.