Understanding brain death

Now a days, we often hear the word brain death and some people become puzzled by it. Actually, brain death is same as death. Brain death occurs when a person no longer has any activity in their brain stem and no potential for consciousness, even though life support can keep their heart beating and oxygen circulating through their blood.
Brain death occurs when a critically ill patient dies sometime after being placed on life support. This situation can occur after, for example, a heart attack or stroke. The heart continues to beat while the ventilator delivers oxygen to the lungs because the heart can initiate its own beating and does not depend on brain). Despite the beating heart and warm skin, the person is dead. Since the brain has stopped working, the person will not breathe if the ventilator is switched off.
Brain death is not the same as other states of unconsciousness like coma. Because someone in a coma is unconscious but still alive and recovery possible.
Some of the signs of brain death include:
• The pupils do not respond to light
• The person shows no reaction to pain
• The eyes do not blink when the eye surface is touched
• The person does not breathe when the ventilator is switched off
• An imaging test shows no brain activity at all
Brain death is a difficult situation of family. Because life support machines keeps heart beating, it gives the illusion that the person is still alive. Family members may hold a false hope that the person is just comatose and could wake up with time or treatment.
It is important for the medical professionals to fully explain that brain death is final, and that the person is dead and has no chance of ever regaining consciousness again.
If the person wished to donate organ, brain death is the ideal situation when organ can be preserved best and transplant to a person who need it to survive.