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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

Today’s tip is about, when is a person actually brain dead in ICU? What’s the evidence? What needs to happen if someone is a suspect of being brain dead in ICU?

Now the first distinction that I need to make is that, there is a big difference between someone being brain dead and someone having a brain injury. Okay, there’s a big, big difference.

So, what conditions lead to actually brain death conditions, that lead to brain death, are often cardiac arrest, where there are more than three minutes of no oxygen to the brain. Other health condition that can lead to brain death is, for example, a severe traumatic brain injury after a fall, after accidents, after a fight, whatever the case may be.

So, if there is a suspicion that someone is brain dead in ICU, the ICU would hopefully inform you and would consent you to do brain death testing and that needs to be done by two independent doctors. And it needs to be done over a period of time and both parties need to 100% confirm that someone is brain dead.

And very important for you to know, ICUs have policies and procedures that they need to follow around brain death testing. And also, there are often state and national laws around brain death testing. They can’t just do that willy-nilly. They need to follow strict policies and procedures and you need to be informed. And you often also need to give consent as the power of attorney for your loved one.

And if you are in doubt, whether your loved one is brain dead or not, you should be checking with professionals such as ourselves here at intensivecarehotline.com. Because we can give you the professional advocacy and consulting that families in intensive care need, because intensive care teams only tell families in intensive care half of the story, if at all.

The biggest challenge for families in intensive care is that they don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know what to look for. They don’t know what questions to ask. They don’t know their rights and they don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care. And that’s exactly your challenge when it comes to your loved one, potentially being brain dead.

Now, what you also need to understand is, if someone is considered brain dead, the next question that the ICU team is probably going to ask you is if you were happy for your loved one to donate organs. So, the whole organ donation question is coming into play here as well. And from that perspective, you should double and triple check before you give consent for brain death testing. And again, I can’t reiterate that often enough, that there is no correlation whatsoever between someone being brain dead and someone having a brain damage. There is no correlation there, whatsoever.

So that is my quick tip for today.

We have many families calling us and they say, “Look, my loved one is brain dead!”, and I said, “Well, how do you know?”, and they will say, “Well, the intensive care is telling me they’re brain dead”. Well, they’re not brain dead without clear-cut evidence, without two independent parties confirming that. And you should also check that the two parties that are testing for brain death are definitely independent, that the other party is coming from another hospital, that they’re clearly independent, and that there’s no conflict of interest.

So that is my quick tip for today.

If you have a loved one in intensive care, go and check out intensivecarehotline.com, call us on one of the numbers on the top of the website, or simply send us an email to [email protected].

Also, check out our membership for families of critically ill patients in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org.

Like this video, comment below what you want to see next, and subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates for families in intensive care.

And I also do, a weekly livestream usually on a Saturday at 8:30 PM, Eastern Time, which is 5:30 PM on a Saturday, Pacific Time. And on the livestream, I usually answer your questions or do a deep dive into a topic for families in intensive care. The livestream happens at 10:30 AM on a Sunday, Sydney and Melbourne Time in Australia.

That is my quick tip for today.

And if you need a medical record review, go and check out our medical review page where we can review your loved one’s medical record while they are in the intensive care. Or even after they’ve left intensive care for a second opinion and for checking for medical negligence, if you have a suspicion for medical negligence.

Thanks for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I will talk to you in a few days.