Brain dead. That was a four-month-old baby, according to doctors at a London hospital in July this year. A test has been developed for this in the United Kingdom, and it left no doubt about it. The hospital staff were therefore very surprised when the child started breathing on its own again two weeks later. It had not been taken off the ventilator due to a legal dispute, which turned out to have saved his life.
The doctor withdrew the clinical determination of the death, and testified about it on Thursday before the British hospital body Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. “It must be incomprehensible to the parents that their baby has to go through something that looks like a huge mistake. I can only say that I am terribly sorry.”
Clinical test
Other doctors also called the test outdated. “So it is clear: the test that determines whether someone is brain dead is not reliable,” said one of them. The Academy immediately indicated that it would investigate whether the test should be adjusted and what the best way is.
The test currently in use is a series of small tests that measure some of the automatic functions of the brain. This concerns, among other things, a possible reaction of the eyes when bright light shines in them, of the body when you get ice cold water in your ears or briefly stopping ventilation to see if the patient is breathing independently. The test is only performed on patients who have clearly suffered brain damage.
argus eyes
The British hospital has been watched with suspicion since the Archie Battersbee case. That 12-year-old boy was taken off the ventilator in early August after a months-long legal battle between his parents and the nursing staff. The boy had fallen into a coma and the doctors ruled that he was brain dead and needed to be taken off the ventilator. His parents insisted he would make it through. In the end, the judge ruled in favor of the doctors.