Coma and Brain Death: Facts, Myths, and Mysteries

Abstract

Death is one of universal fact that no one can change, but ongoing advanced medical techniques have created equal challenges to nature. The process of death counts complicated grieving, medical treatment, estate planning, organ donation, and legal and ethical issues. When all vital organs and body systems cease to function, there is end of life. The Uniform Determination of Death Act has stated that “an individual who has sustained either irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions or irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brainstem, is dead.” The legal and clinical concept of brain stem death has differentiated coma as a state of prolonged, profound unconsciousness where a person is unresponsive to painful stimuli, light, or sound and cannot be woken. The chapter aimed to detect the fact, myth, and mystery behind coma and brain death, using a legal, clinical, and traditional view.